Anomalous
by MonochromeObserver
Summary: What was supposed to be a fun time turned into urgent rescue mission. Rosalina and her friends have to find out what happened to the rest of Smashers while dealing with someone quite mysterious and obnoxious.
1. prologue-the past keeps haunting us

_Author's notes:_

" _Bruh, why the em dashes in dialogues?" Oh, don't worry about it. That's just one of many ways to punctuate, especially in European languages, and i just think it looks more clean than spamming quotation marks for everything._

 _Oh, and i first published the prologue before even thinking about finally writing a full fanfic, but it was just a raw dialogue. Now, i made it clear who is talking._

* * *

 **1\. prologue-the past keeps haunting us**

Preparations for the fourth Smash tournament were going full steam. Newcomers trained intensively to not be behind veterans when it comes to rules, items, being familiarized with stages, and so on. They had to learn everything that was a part of Smash, which they had never come across before.[1]

A Mii in red shirt, yellow gloves, black hair and black eyes went outside of a complex where the training took place to take a break. He was called "the Brawler" because he specialized in hand-to-hand combat. The Brawler was mesmerized by this surreal view composed of floating islands, clouds surrounding them and the ocean at the very bottom.  
An elegant woman with pointy ears noticed him. Her name was Zelda. She was the wise princess of legendary kingdom of Hyrule. She too enjoyed this landscape quite a lot.

The Mii was not very well mannered. He struck up a conversation with her, as if she was just another person and not a princess.  
— So, this is the place, huh? —he asked. — Hmm, looks very dreamy. Is there any reason why almost all of the ground hangs in the air? Not that I'm scared of heights but, you know, that's peculiar.  
Zelda didn't mind though. She casually answered:  
— There are many legends as to why floating islands are a thing here. To cut a long story short, let's just say, somebody envisioned this world to look like that. It's not a natural landscape.  
— Who? —the Brawler asked, amazed by the idea that one person was able to alter the landscape.  
— Hmmm... —the princess was reluctant to answer. — Do you remember the invitation you received?  
— Yes. But, why do you ask?  
— Do you remember how the letter was signed?  
— Oh. I guess it wasn't striking enough because I can't recall. Wait! Wait. I still have it with me! Umm, let's see...

The Brawler had a backpack with him. Who knows what he carried there other than a humble bottle of water. Towels perhaps? Apparently he threw the letter in there too, as he tried to look for it.  
— Uhh... hmm... Aha! —he found it. — "It is our pleasure to invite you to..." blahblahblahblah... hmm... Heh, no wonder I didn't remember, it's just initials, "M. H.". So you are saying they shaped this world to look like that?  
— Yes, and many more things... —Zelda affirmed.  
— Are they some kind of a magician?  
— More than that.  
— Ohh! Now I want to meet them.  
— You don't. —Zelda's tone of voice suddenly changed to a more serious one. — Trust me. Sadly, you will eventually see him, but don't look forward to it. Just prepare. This whole tournament is one big preparation to stand against monsters like him.  
— What? Why? —the Mii got confused. — Why would someone evil accommodate us in such a nice mansion in such magical place? Usually bad guys, you know, set it up more like gladiator fights.

The princess realized she stumbled upon not the best subject to talk with newcomers about. She decided to put his curiosity to rest anyway. She explained:  
— He has moments where he is nice, but there are also moments where he is vile. Those invitations are a recent addition. Back in the day, he boldly stormed into our worlds and just abducted us, as if we were nothing but toys that could be lent. He only put us back when our protectors started to notice that we went missing. After a certain time, these tournaments became really famous and one of protectors, Lady Palutena, wanted to participate in them too, along with her angel. However, she could not stand for such brutal treatment, and she demanded for a more civil way of gathering fighters. He obliged... somehow.  
— So this guy is one of those moody bosses? —the Brawler asked.  
— Pretty much. It's quite complicated though.  
— Ehh, I've heard stories about guys like that. It can't be that bad, can it? —the Mii shared his optimism. — Sure, it can get annoying, but it's not like he is going to seriously injure us, right? Otherwise, these tournaments would be seen in bad light, but from what I see, everyone is ecstatic about it.  
— We enjoy these events because of new friendships, new knowledge of things and worlds we couldn't previously imagine and new experience. But his episodes add bitterness to otherwise fun times. Especially the last one...  
— The last one?

Zelda didn't like the way this conversation was going, but the Brawler would learn of these things one day or another. She sighed and admitted:  
— Now that I mentioned it, I guess I'm obliged to talk about it...  
— Of course you have to! I have to know what I signed up for. Tell me! —the Brawler was so curious.  
— Well, first of all, it was justified. I don't blame him for reacting like that. But the way he did it... Since that day, we have never looked at him the same way as before.  
— Come on! What happened? Some kind of controversy?

Zelda took a deep breath and began elaborating:  
— A few years ago there was... an "incident", for a lack of better term. The world was attacked from many directions and parts of it were dragged into a dimension we've never heard of before.  
— Whole chunks of the world? How?! —the Brawler never heard of such feats.  
— With bombs specifically designed for this task which required two robots to activate as some form of cruel sacrifice. Somewhere far away, there used to be an island called the Isle of the Ancients, where those robots lived. This is where they were also forced to produce these bombs. After we reached that place, robots were ordered to detonate all of the remaining bombs. This was such an immense explosion that the isle ceased to exist.  
— They were forced to do this? By who? That "M.H." guy?  
— We had suspicions that was the case, but it wasn't, much to our surprise. —Zelda pointed out. — In that alien dimension there was a being who was sickened of emptiness, and sought to seize some of this world for himself. He could not leave his realm, so he targeted the one who could move through dimensions freely. The being first assaulted M's counterpart, knowing this would catch M's attention and also deprive him of any form of aid. Then, the invader pierced M with golden fetters when he saw a chance...  
— Hmm. I guess the being did it to manipulate others, right? —the Mii shared his thoughts. — Now I kind of feel bad for the guy. Being chained like that... I still fail to see though, how he could be evil.

The princess took another deep breath, knowing she is going to disappoint him.  
— That's bold of you to assume M wouldn't take revenge for this humiliation...  
— Huh? —the Mii got confused.  
— We naively thought we managed to defeat the invader. Last thing we saw in that realm was him wrying in pain and fragments of this world being restored. I have to admit we also ignored M lying unconsciously, after he managed to free himself from those fetters.  
— Oh no... don't tell me...

Zelda explained:  
— Here we were, celebrating, unaware that another nightmare was brewing behind our backs. Just when we were about to return to the mansion, a deafening sound and myriad lights in the sky startled us greatly. We were ready for another battle, but what we saw was a lot to take in...  
— And it was... —Brawler braced himself.  
— M floated in one place, shaking, twitching, laughing maniacally. His... clothes were all dirty and covered in his and I guess that being's blood. We thought the being's body was holographic, so seeing their translucent flesh shook us all. Yes, their body was torn apart. M held what used to be that being's heart, then encased it in a sphere, and those Shadow Bugs the invader released upon this world started to swarm around and into this sphere. This was our punishment for leaving M behind. This shapeless monstrosity. The Core...  
— Oh, gods!  
— I know. —Zelda admitted. — If M's counterpart didn't find us, who knows what would've happened. He too was terrified of this creature. We were sent back to our home worlds, to be saved from further harm.  
— Then... Then... Why...?  
— Why this tournament is happening again? Not out of M's request, that's for sure. To this day, we haven't seen him. We were only told by his servants that everything is in control again. But I doubt he forgave us. His wrath is a horrifying force.

That was quite a lot to take in, but Brawler was aware other fighters dealt with monsters before. He didn't want to be worse. He asked:  
— Do you think you- no, we will have to fight that monstrosity one day?  
— Yes. I do think that. —Zelda said. — But the last thing you want to do is to flee. Don't give M the satisfaction he seeks. Overcome your fears. Prove that you are worthy of being in Smash.  
— Oh, hell yeah I will! —he assured her. — I didn't come here only to chicken out later!  
— Good. With that attitude, you will go far.

* * *

[1] _Why does it take place before Smash 4 and not Ultimate? Because i thought about this, well, since 4._


	2. just another adventure

**2\. just another adventure**

Smash tournament was not only about fierce competition, but also it gave an opportunity to learn about different worlds and people inhabiting them. And forming new friendships, of course.

Because most of these contestants were heroes, their never-ending thirst for adventure had to be quenched.

This world held many secrets and just as many treasures. During free days, veteran fighters organized treasure hunts for plenty of reasons: to get to know each other better, to show off their powers, to challenge themselves. No one was obliged to join, but everyone wanted to let loose and this was a perfect excuse.

Princess Peach, a blonde woman dressed in pink, was the best at bringing people together, so she felt it was her duty to encourage newcomers to join the treasure hunt too.  
While everyone was preparing to set out in the mansion, Peach noticed Mii Brawler sitting on a couch. He looked nervous. Zelda noticed him too. Peach asked her:  
— What scares him so much?  
— I told him about the incident. —Zelda answered honestly.  
— What? Zelda! We had an agreement! "Don't scare off new guys" They say 'ignorance is bliss' for a reason.  
Zelda glanced at her friend, bearing a serious expression. She never approved of concealing facts, no matter how unpleasant they were. She excused herself:  
— Ignorance is also the reason why history repeats itself. He would find out eventually. I omitted a few details anyway.  
— Oh, come on. I'm certain that everything is going to be a-ok now that another Smash tournament takes place once again. —Peach shared her optimism.  
Princess of Hyrule sighed, also wanting things to go well.  
— I hope... —she admitted.

Peach then saw one of her friends from the world she comes from, or at least, from somewhere in vicinity of her world.  
It was Rosalina, the protector of cosmos, and her dear Luma, one of many she took care of. The woman also had blonde hair but cut differently and one of bangs covered her right eye. She was dressed in teal gown, and she carried her star wand at all times. Despite living abnormally longer than humans usually do[2], Rosalina still hadn't seen everything this Universe has to offer. Especially this occasion that was Smash, was excellent to learn new things. So many wonderful people; so many interesting tales to hear.

Indeed, this starry girl preferred to listen to others rather than talk about herself. She was just very humble, feeling that there's not much to talk about.  
Peach bothered Rosalina anyway, because the pink princess was really sociable and she felt obliged to turn every frown upside down.

Once everyone was ready, they didn't leave together. Each one of them set out at their own pace, in different directions, either on foot or riding some kind of vehicle. Nobody really knew where treasures where so starting the journey before anyone else didn't give them any advantage. Treasures were just excuses to go outside and explore the world.

Rosalina and Luma went with Peach on some kind of carriage-looking vehicle.  
Along with them were the heroic plumber with red hat called Mario who took Sonic, the quick blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with him. There was Link, a blonde Hylian in green clothes napping on the backside, Zelda and another anthropomorphic animal, Fox, the skilled pilot and leader of Star Fox. There was also Pikachu, the electric Pokémon resembling a yellow mouse, and Samus, the bounty hunter donning intimidating metallic suit. Samus and Pikachu were tired of other guys so they went with Peach. And of course, the Brawler also joined this group. He felt more confident having a kind princess by his side. Simply put, Peach was the leader of this group.

Meanwhile, one oddball set out all by himself. A shadow of a forgotten past, pitch-black and completely flat. Distinctive beeps and boops always announced his presence.  
He never fit well among the fighters, but he never felt bothered by that, living his own adventures, confused by the third dimension and other complex matters.  
This flippant little mister noticed footprints of a certain big and spiky turtle it knew of. They led quite far. Who knows, maybe the turtle planned on kidnapping pink princess again? Little mister decided to follow the trace. He did notice vehicles passing by in the distance, but they didn't make him as curious as the trace.  
As he followed it, he came across a fragment of a circle "drawn" on the ground.

Even though so many years have passed since the Subspace incident, one observant enough could still notice lingering vestiges it left, not only in people's memories but also throughout this world. A few still remembered that somewhere above ocean there was an ancient isle. It was gone now, without a trace. In other places where space-tearing bombs were set off, one could notice large circles which marked how much land was torn off. Passage of time still didn't manage to cover them all.

Little mister was one of those more affected by that incident. Lack of awareness of situation at that time most likely saved his sanity. However, every time he noticed a sign the accident left, dread overtook him for a fraction of a second, and he had no idea why that happened. He just wanted to move on; to be carefree, like he always was.

Other fighters didn't have such problems, just because the incident itself was but another adventure in their lives. The evil stranger defeated them all at once but then a few clever friends of theirs managed to save them and that was pretty much it.  
Now here they were, once again gathered together in this world. Fighting and treasure hunting. Having a good time.

Peach and her friends stopped by a forest, to take a breather and look for some clues. Maybe eat lunch too.

The Brawler set out alone into the woods, wanting to prove he's more competent than they expect a newbie to be. What was he exactly looking for? An arrow? A sign? A cross on the ground? A weird puzzle? Maybe even a whole dungeon? Anything interesting.  
He didn't seem to worry about getting lost. This forest wasn't quite dense anyway.  
But this forest was suspiciously quiet. No birds, no insects...  
The Brawler felt as if there was a giant sleeping somewhere nearby and every animal was scared of them. But here the Mii was, boldly sneaking by, turning his head back and forth, suspecting every bush to hide a monster in there.  
Only when it got kind of dark did Brawler realize that he got in fact lost.

Without a warning, an ambush.  
A bunch of wooden puppets on strings with claws and red eyes appeared.[3]  
The Brawler had never seen those enemies before. He was ready to fight them nonetheless.  
He kicked, he punched, and while he managed to hit a few, those puppets turned out to be pretty smart, getting pulled up by unseen force everytime the Brawler jumped at them and punishing him with swipes of their sharp claws. If he stopped jumping, he wouldn't be able to reach the enemies at all. But he had to admit that letting himself get scratched like that was pretty stupid.

Suddenly, something dropped from the trees. Or rather someone. Another Mii, but he looked off. His eyes were vivid red.  
The Brawler got spooked by him.  
— AHH! —he screamed, as he was about to instinctively smack the stranger.  
— No, wait! I'm here to help! —the stranger excused his presence. He sounded like a vocalist from a heavy metal band who screams often, high-pitched and raspy.  
— Help?! —the Brawler didn't expect this guy to be friendly.

The unknown Mii raised his arms and shot red fireballs at puppets while laughing like a maniac. They got set on fire and crumbled to ashes. It was pretty unsafe to do it in a forest, but the enemies turned into ash before their burning bodies could touch the ground.  
The Brawler was amazed by this magic. He remarked:  
— You literally wrecked those dudes!  
— I know, right? —the red-eyed Mii said. — Now you can get out! Let's go. Let's go!  
The stranger grabbed Brawler's hand tightly and run away with him to find others.

While running, the Brawler had to ask:  
— Who are you? I can't do tricks like that!  
— Uhh, umm, ahh, you tell me. —the stranger blurted out.  
— Wh... what do you mean you don't know who you are.  
— I... didn't take a look in the mirror. Haha, oops. —red-eyed Mii admitted.  
— Ugh, you look like a Mii but just tell me. You are a shapeshifter, aren't you?  
— Ehhh, not really. —the stranger answered. — See, I only borrowed this body to not scare you off with my real form.  
— Borrowed? Real form? Huh? —the Brawler got confused.  
— Mhm, yes, my real form is not the best to make first impression with, I'll tell you that much. And not the best form to sneak by, hoohoo!

They found the rest of the group who were about to start looking for the Brawler.  
Princess Peach's face brightened up immediately and she greeted the stranger who she recognized by those red eyes:  
— Crazy?! Oh, I'm so happy to see you!  
— Peach! —the red-eyed fellow exclaimed.  
The Brawler got more bewildered than ever before.  
— What's so crazy?  
— I AM! —the stranger exclaimed. — My name is literally Crazy! AAAhahahaaa!  
— ...okay. —Brawler said weakly, his confusion only deepening.

Rosalina just stared, also confused. She looked back on the rest of group, but they just turned around and continued to mind their own business. Looks like everyone knew this guy, except her and the Brawler.  
Peach gently nudged the red-eyed Mii and asked:  
— Crazy, how are you doing? Is everything going well "behind the scenes"?  
— Oh, yeah! We worked on some stages today. Now I just came to keep you kiddies out of trouble, hehe. —he winked. — And bro set out to build stuff, I don't know. No, not on this planet.  
— So, you won't be able to join us? —the princess asked.  
— Nah. Maybe next time, during tournaments. We are actually planning something, hehe, special. Just another way to win something nice while spicing things up a bit.[4]  
— Oh, I can't wait! —Peach was easy to excite.

Indeed, Crazy didn't stay for long, as he had to look after other fighters. He bid farewell and just disappeared in unusual fashion, as if the ground stopped existing below him and he fell through it.

Rosalina was about to ask Peach more about this guy, but pink princess ran up to Brawler to check on his wounds. Then, once she made sure everyone is back safely for the most part, they all returned to the vehicle and resumed their journey.

The atmosphere among the fighters was quite friendly, thanks to Peach mostly, who knew how to resolve quarrels and her tea was exquisite. Of course, it was flavored with peach syrup.

A few hours later, the fighters came across a large and several hundred meters deep gorge separating two chunks of land.  
The only thing connecting one side of land to the other was a stone bridge. It looked really old and really unstable with all these cracks.  
Rosalina seemed to be the only one concerned here about the durability of the bridge. She asked:  
— Is there really no other way to cross this?  
Zelda looked around carefully. She couldn't see any other bridges or even paths that would indicate they were connected at some point, or even a spot where pieces of land were closer to each other. She concluded:  
— I'm afraid not. Unless you can warp from one point to another.

Suddenly Sonic jumped out of carriage and exclaimed while running across the bridge:  
— Last one to get across is a wimp! WOO!  
It was hilariously easy to provoke these fighters to move on, despite dangers.  
Pikachu zapped away after the blue hedgehog. Samus shouted while trying to catch that Pokémon:  
— SONIC, YOU RECKLESS FUCK!  
He heard that and responded:  
— Whoa, language!

The rest were trying to outrun each other, as if it was a race. Even Luma flew away. Zelda teleported away to scold Link on the other side. Only Rosalina, the Brawler, Peach and Fox stayed, facepalming at this display.  
There was no point in staying behind though. If others passed, why wouldn't they?

Just as the four stepped on the bridge though...

The part of it they stood on broke and the stone fragments dragged them down. Their screams faded away quickly.  
Everyone else made an audible gasp. Mario was about to run towards where Peach fell. Luma wanted to go back to rescue their mama but Mario held it firmly, not wanting it to get lost.  
Sonic changed his attitude:  
— We gotta save them!  
But Zelda stopped him and everyone else by loudly saying:  
— No, it's dangerous! We will get stuck down there if we do so. Everyone stay! They will find a way out, don't worry. R.O.B is in the mansion, he will take care of everything. Let's just go.

It was unbelievable for Mario to leave Peach behind, but Luigi held him as firmly as Mario held that Luma. The princess wasn't alone anyway.

And so, four unfortunate heroes were left on their own, but not for long.

* * *

[2] _Who knows at what point did Rosalina stop being a normal human and turned into a demigod of sorts. Star Power, i guess._

[3] _Puppit_ s _, from SSE._

[4] _He's talking about Special Orders._


	3. went too far

**3\. went too far**

The four fighters rolled down into a cave. They fell from quite a long distance.

Fox and Rosalina were turned into trophies. Hard to believe, but it wasn't a curse. It was a fail-safe magic protecting them from serious or even fatal damage. It could also keep them alive in environments where they normally shouldn't be able to survive. This magic was provided by golden pins they all received upon entering this world.  
Even though the Brawler and every other newcomer was informed of this, he still freaked out. Peach simply walked up to them and awoke them by touching gilded bases, showing the Mii there was nothing to worry about.  
Rosalina and Fox woke up feeling slightly dizzy but other than that, they were fine.

It was damp, cold and cramped in here.  
They looked around and wondered how to get out of here. Rocks were too slippery, so climbing was out of the question.  
They had no choice but follow the current of stream. It had to lead somewhere outside.

At first Rosalina used her wand to provide light but later on, the fighters found themselves in a more spacious part of the cave with glowing crystals. It was so quiet, the four didn't say a word. They were so mesmerized by crystals.  
Rosalina even stopped walking to gaze at the strange light emitted by those crystals.  
Of course, this turned out to be a really bad decision, as she lost not only the sight of her friends, but also the stream of water as well. But curiosity conquered fear. She just went forward, feeling as if the cave turned into a crystal corridor. The light was so relaxing.

Gradually, she began to hear something. Some voices she kind of recognized. She crouched. Yes, it was them. That nasty fat guy who wore biker gear and spiky turtle monster.

Wario and Bowser looked around. Bowser asked, continuing a conversation:  
— ...and why are we looking for this?  
— Just think of all the trrreasure, Bows! —Wario explained, or rather tempted. — From all over the universe! We could be ugly rich! Ehh-hehehe! Or, or, imagine all the worlds you could take over!  
— I tried to make my own galaxy. Didn't go well. —Koopa King admitted.  
— You didn't try hard enough! With that thing, Mario wouldn't even KNOW the moment you snatched Peach away.  
— Just, shut up. I know fully well you want this just for yourself.  
— We would take turns!

Rosalina listened to their conversation, wondering what they were looking for that would allow travel from one world to another.  
Her wondering however, was quickly interrupted by a firm grasp of her mouth by someone from behind.  
— Spying, I see... —the man said in ridiculously raspy voice.  
The princess tried to take a peek at him. He didn't look young. His hair and beard were ginger and his skin was dark. He wore elegant armor and a cape. Something glowed in his chest. It looked like a wound...

The other two heard that man and Bowser glanced at him, saying:  
— Put her down, Ganondorf. We don't want trouble.  
Wario cut in:  
— No, don't! Or else she will tell everybody where we are! They can't know we are looking for Shuten Engi-  
— WARIO! —Ganondorf and Bowser tried to stop him from blurting out their intentions but they were a little bit too late on that.  
— Oh, oopsie... —Wario realized his mistake.[5]

Rosalina was confused. She tried to defend herself:  
— Shuten Engine? I-i-i don't even know what that is!  
— Good. —Ganondorf commented and informed. — You are still staying with us, lady.  
— If you weren't so harsh on me maybe I would be willing to stay. Would be nice of you. —Rosalina objected to the way he treated her.  
— Nice?! —Gerudo man bellowed. — I am the King of Evil! A demon! Nations tremble before me!  
Bowser flicked him across the face and argued:  
— Even the most evil king has to have manners. Show her some respect.  
— Says who?! —Ganondorf yelled back.

The two kings got into heated argument. Rosalina tried to back off, but she forgot Wario was here. He creepily approached her, probably wanting to steal her crown.  
Wario mockingly pushed the princess, who was way taller than him. She fell down and she accidentally pressed something lit.  
Unexpectedly, the piece of ground she fell on shook and rose up really high.

It wasn't ground, it was a platform of sorts. As dirt was getting off it, they could see a motif where one side of the platform was blue and crystalline and the other one was red and seemingly made out of stone.  
Before they realized what was taking place, it was too late to jump off this platform. Rosalina had no idea what was happening but the bad guys knew too well and Bowser freaked out.  
— WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? —he yelled at Wario.  
Wario just looked at all directions and said:  
— I-I didn't know!  
— THERE WERE LIGHTS, YOU IDIOT! —Koopa King growled.

In a blink of an eye, the world around them was gone. They didn't feel any forces pulling them back, but from what they were seeing, they knew they were soaring through a lit up tunnel of sorts. Perhaps even a wormhole.  
Rosalina stared right into the distance. The view was so hypnotizing. It felt almost as if it was drilling into her mind. As if that tunnel led to her soul. This gave her quite a headache. She closed her eyes to regain composure.

Just as she opened her eyes again, they got out of tunnel and found themselves in outer space. In front of them, there was a planet. It wasn't the World of Trophies; it had more ground than water, which was the total opposite of where Smash tournaments took place. Despite that, there were plenty of green areas. It also seemed that the atmosphere was less dense, but thanks to those magical golden pins, fighters didn't need to worry about air. This "feature" was implemented because a few stages were located in space, including this very platform, but Rosalina didn't know it was another stage.

The platform flew towards that planet quite fast. It lowered and lowered, closer to the ground, air resistance didn't affect it at all.  
It finally stopped before a peculiar building of minimalistic design. This time not even bad guys knew where they were. At least the surroundings looked quite peaceful.  
Not enough peaceful to prevent Ganondorf from losing his patience.  
— Can anyone tell me... Where are we?! —he exclaimed.  
Wario picked his nose and said as if nothing ever happened:  
— If it took us here, it means there's a reason for it. Hey, maybe this is where that thing is! In that temple!  
— How do you know it's a temple? —Rosalina asked.  
— It doesn't look like a palace, dummy, otherwise I would be already rushing towards it! Hehe.

Having no way of steering the platform to return where they came from, they just got off it. Bowser helped Rosalina leave it in the only way he knew: by grabbing her by her waist as if she was a big sack of potatoes and jumped off with her. Once he loudly landed, Bowser put the princess down. At least Koopa King cared enough to do this, so Rosalina thanked him anyway while wiping dirt off her dress.  
They went to the temple with Ganondorf on lead.

The building actually looked more like a temple inside. There was even an altar far away. Though, there were no idols or anything that would look sacred. In fact, this place was pretty empty, save for curtains and heavily decorated walls. Colors varied but they were all pastel.  
Rosalina got fascinated by the patterns on walls. She pondered on their meaning.

Wario almost ran forward, only to back off immediately. He pulled Ganondorf back, pointing at a certain white thing in front of altar he just noticed.  
The guys recognized the figure and Ganondorf whispered in dismay:  
— Oh, gods damn it...  
— Sheeeet... —Wario expressed irritation, also quietly.  
They quickly and as quietly as possible hid behind the sides of the entrance to that part of temple.

This place was already occupied by someone. Someone bigger than Bowser even.  
They really, really didn't want to cross paths with this... hand.

Rosalina couldn't believe what she was seeing. She tried to blink a couple of times. Perhaps it was a side effect from this awkward trip?  
But it wasn't.  
There really was a big gloved hand floating there. It was preoccupied with something.

Without warning, Ganondorf grabbed the princess by her arms and backed off. He harshly but still quietly addressed everyone:  
— Silence, all of you... don't even sneeze...  
Rosalina obliged, but she couldn't help but wonder how a disembodied hand could hear. And how good it's hearing was.

Judging from noises and peeking from time to time, while covering themselves with curtains, they assumed the hand was doing something under the floor? Something metallic was being moved? Ganondorf could've sworn he heard muffled buzzing too. "Oh gods, not the buzzing." he thought, suspecting the worst.

The draught tickled Rosalina's nose. She tried to stop it, she really did. But despite her best efforts, against her will...

— ah-choo!

And at that moment, their luck ran out.  
The hand stopped whatever it was doing and slowly turned around.

Ganondorf got so angry but he had to hold his anger, hoping the hand wouldn't come to them. Ever since the Subspace incident though, the hand got slightly paranoiac, so of course it would check what was that noise.  
Gerudo man held princess's mouth so firmly, as if he wanted to crush her small delicate face. His heart pounded intensively.

The hand moved towards the entrance. It seemed to look around despite having no eyes. It's palm moved slightly to the left and to the right...

It backed off a bit.  
Was it going away?

The hand turned and all of sudden, it pulled Rosalina from Ganondorf's grasp. None of three fighters felt an urge to help the princess. Instead, they tried to run away but the hand shot energetic fetters towards them and pulled them back. The hand quickly chucked all four of them at the altar.

The princess activated her barrier at a right time and she not only didn't hit the altar but also stood up. The other three guys bonked right onto it. Somehow, Bowser didn't break it with his horns and enormous weight.

After treating them in such ruthless way, the hand proceeded to do something the princess didn't even think it was possible for it to do: to talk.  
— Missed me already? —the hand said in a deep masculine voice and pointed out: — You three always go where you shouldn't, but now I see you brought a "friend"?

Only Bowser stood in Rosalina's defence, since they both come from the same world. Nonetheless, it was still weird that such an egoist like him bothered to speak up.  
— Keep her out of this, Master. She just run into us. What were we supposed to do, leave her all by herself? We would get into even more trouble if we did...

Two details struck the princess. One, that King Koopa called the hand "master". Why would a king be servile towards anyone? And second, the sole fact that Bowser wanted to get her out of this mess implied that something awful was about to happen.

The hand cackled and used his magic to pull the grate away on which the three villains stood. They fell down, under the floor.  
The hand disregarded the princess and lowered himself to stare into a hole which the grate covered before. He told the three:  
— Now that you are here... why won't you entertain me for a while? Heh... heheh.  
The bad guys shook. They were fully aware that the hand's concept of "entertainment" greatly differed from the norm.  
They could hear buzzing somewhere in the corner. The same Ganondorf heard before.

Out of darkness, something blending with shadows flew rapidly towards the three. They screamed:  
— AAAAHHH! NOOO! HHHHGH!

Now was the perfect moment for Rosalina to leave and run away. But where? Outside of course, to that weird platform which carried them here in the first place. Simple, right? She went outside the temple and...

The platform was gone.  
Rosalina took a deep breath to not let irritation overwhelm her, and just decided to fly as far away from that place as she could. Indeed, she was mostly worried about Luma and that she didn't know how to get back to the world where Smash tournament was hosted, but right now was not the time to ponder about it.

She flew through a meadow, over rivers, through a forest, across a planet she had never been to before but it didn't look alien; except for the fact that plants seemed to shine iridescently.  
Eventually, she got tired and sat under a lone tree, pretty sure she got away far enough. The landscape before her was amazing, with mountains in the distance and the starry sky, even though it was afternoon, judging by where the sun was. Just as she moved a bit to look how this world looked like behind her...

— Had a nice trip? —the white hand smugly asked.  
She jumped in terror and shouted:  
— WHO ARE YOU?!  
— Whoa, ahahaha... I won't hurt you. —the hand assured her.  
— Mmhm, riiight. —Rosalina said, not having a single reason to trust this hand after what he did to these three guys. She asked again: — Who are you?  
— Oh, that would take too long to explain. —the hand responded and again jumped to a different subject: — If I recall correctly, you and a couple of other buddies fell from a bridge? You guys went on a little adventure? Can't wait to see more of that.  
— How do you know that?!  
— Magic. Now, were you looking for this, perhaps?  
The hand pointed at the sky. A "star" flew by, stopped and slowly descended, hovering far above them. It was that weird platform again. Before she could say anything, light surrounded her and suddenly she was on the platform, confusing her further more.  
— But... but... —Rosalina didn't want to leave without answers.  
The hand was aware of that and said:  
— It's not the last time we meet, mhmhmh.  
He waved to her and the platform soared away.

Back in the world of floating islands, Peach, Fox and the Brawler managed to get out of the cave, but they were still underground. They hoped that Rosalina found an exit before them somehow, though they felt that they would have to go back there anyway.

The three found themselves in a weird place. It looked like ruins of a cellar.  
It was quite dark in here. Still damp and quiet. And somehow windy; one could only assume it was drought coming from one of corners. It gave them hope that the exit was pretty close.

The group wanted to maintain this silence, not wanting their presence to be known. After Peach came across a peculiar object though, it became a really difficult task.  
Peach really wanted to scream but for some reason she couldn't, so she just covered her mouth in disbelief. And what she saw was a blue lamp, but translucent and shaped like a head of someone, who she saw once. Someone, who caused a lot of problems in the past.  
Peach wished for this thing to only look like a head, but knowing that hand, it was most likely an actual head.  
She poked Fox. His ears backed off in shock. The Brawler also noticed this "lamp". He quickly turned away in disgust.

It got windier and louder. Peach's dress almost rose up.  
Instead of running away from the source of noise, they ran towards it.  
They saw Rosalina descending from the platform. Peach was so relieved. She told the cosmic friend:  
— Finally, oh! We were worried sick about you! You shouldn't have stepped on that thing.  
— Wario pushed me onto it! —Rosalina complained as she got off the platform. — Stars almighty... can anyone explain to me what is going on?  
— Well, this thing we call "Final Destination". —Peach pointed at the platform. — Don't worry, it creeps us out too. Wait, you saw Wario? We were looking for him too, actually...  
— Yes and I saw Bowser and a man with red hair. They looked for something. What was the latter's name? Gan-Ganondorf? Right?  
— Yes! They looked for something in these caves we just left?  
Rosalina proceeded to explain the rest of what happened to her. She barely remembered the time on the platform, only the 'tunnel' and her headache. She told them about the temple too. And about that hand...

The Brawler thought he misheard:  
— H-hand? Excuse me? A hand?!  
Fox decided it was about time newcomers learned something about Smash. He announced:  
— Oh, man... sit back you guys. I'm about to tell you a hell of a tale.

Peach gave him a judgmental look. There was nothing to sit on. Not that she was bothered by a bare ground or anything...

Once everybody got comfortable, Fox started explaining:  
— First of all, that hand and his brother are those who organize this event and invited us all here. I know, weird, bear with me, save questions for later. You already met Crazy. He has enough decency to not scare people off. He too is a hand. A left one. Bowser called the right one 'master' because that's right one's name: Master. I'm not going to waste time on the entire history of Smash, maybe another time. I'll just say, be extra careful with Master, okay? Last time we've seen him, he was livid. We haven't seen him now either but given Smash tournament is happening again, we thought we would see him soon enough. That blue thing? It's a *ahem* head of certain alien who pissed him off.

Fox summarized the events of the Subspace incident and how that "certain alien's" core was used to make a monstrosity against which the three 'bad guys' were pitted to fight against.  
The Brawler suddenly realized it's the same story Zelda told him. He looked at Peach. She knew what he was thinking and nodded before the Mii asked anything. He was so frightened.

The four realized it was getting dark. There was no point in telling stories without campfire, so they decided to talk about these issues another time, maybe even on the way.

It was dawn by the time the group reached the mansion. It had a beacon turned on so it wasn't difficult to find it.  
They didn't know where the rest of their friends were. Maybe there was a way to inform others that they are safe now. Maybe there even was a way to rejoin them? It didn't matter now. They were really tired after walking and jumping among floating islands the whole night. They went to their rooms and fell asleep.

* * *

[5] _I wrote about Shuten Engines here:_ **3\. went too far**

The four fighters rolled down into a cave. They fell from quite a long distance.

Fox and Rosalina were turned into trophies. Hard to believe, but it wasn't a curse. It was a fail-safe magic protecting them from serious or even fatal damage. It could also keep them alive in environments where they normally shouldn't be able to survive. This magic was provided by golden pins they all received upon entering this world.  
Even though the Brawler and every other newcomer was informed of this, he still freaked out. Peach simply walked up to them and awoke them by touching gilded bases, showing the Mii there was nothing to worry about.  
Rosalina and Fox woke up feeling slightly dizzy but other than that, they were fine.

It was damp, cold and cramped in here.  
They looked around and wondered how to get out of here. Rocks were too slippery, so climbing was out of the question.  
They had no choice but follow the current of stream. It had to lead somewhere outside.

At first Rosalina used her wand to provide light but later on, the fighters found themselves in a more spacious part of the cave with glowing crystals. It was so quiet, the four didn't say a word. They were so mesmerized by crystals.  
Rosalina even stopped walking to gaze at the strange light emitted by those crystals.  
Of course, this turned out to be a really bad decision, as she lost not only the sight of her friends, but also the stream of water as well. But curiosity conquered fear. She just went forward, feeling as if the cave turned into a crystal corridor. The light was so relaxing.

Gradually, she began to hear something. Some voices she kind of recognized. She crouched. Yes, it was them. That nasty fat guy who wore biker gear and spiky turtle monster.

Wario and Bowser looked around. Bowser asked, continuing a conversation:  
— ...and why are we looking for this?  
— Just think of all the trrreasure, Bows! —Wario explained, or rather tempted. — From all over the universe! We could be ugly rich! Ehh-hehehe! Or, or, imagine all the worlds you could take over!  
— I tried to make my own galaxy. Didn't go well. —Koopa King admitted.  
— You didn't try hard enough! With that thing, Mario wouldn't even KNOW the moment you snatched Peach away.  
— Just, shut up. I know fully well you want this just for yourself.  
— We would take turns!

Rosalina listened to their conversation, wondering what they were looking for that would allow travel from one world to another.  
Her wondering however, was quickly interrupted by a firm grasp of her mouth by someone from behind.  
— Spying, I see... —the man said in ridiculously raspy voice.  
The princess tried to take a peek at him. He didn't look young. His hair and beard were ginger and his skin was dark. He wore elegant armor and a cape. Something glowed in his chest. It looked like a wound...

The other two heard that man and Bowser glanced at him, saying:  
— Put her down, Ganondorf. We don't want trouble.  
Wario cut in:  
— No, don't! Or else she will tell everybody where we are! They can't know we are looking for Shuten Engi-  
— WARIO! —Ganondorf and Bowser tried to stop him from blurting out their intentions but they were a little bit too late on that.  
— Oh, oopsie... —Wario realized his mistake.[5]

Rosalina was confused. She tried to defend herself:  
— Shuten Engine? I-i-i don't even know what that is!  
— Good. —Ganondorf commented and informed. — You are still staying with us, lady.  
— If you weren't so harsh on me maybe I would be willing to stay. Would be nice of you. —Rosalina objected to the way he treated her.  
— Nice?! —Gerudo man bellowed. — I am the King of Evil! A demon! Nations tremble before me!  
Bowser flicked him across the face and argued:  
— Even the most evil king has to have manners. Show her some respect.  
— Says who?! —Ganondorf yelled back.

The two kings got into heated argument. Rosalina tried to back off, but she forgot Wario was here. He creepily approached her, probably wanting to steal her crown.  
Wario mockingly pushed the princess, who was way taller than him. She fell down and she accidentally pressed something lit.  
Unexpectedly, the piece of ground she fell on shook and rose up really high.

It wasn't ground, it was a platform of sorts. As dirt was getting off it, they could see a motif where one side of the platform was blue and crystalline and the other one was red and seemingly made out of stone.  
Before they realized what was taking place, it was too late to jump off this platform. Rosalina had no idea what was happening but the bad guys knew too well and Bowser freaked out.  
— WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? —he yelled at Wario.  
Wario just looked at all directions and said:  
— I-I didn't know!  
— THERE WERE LIGHTS, YOU IDIOT! —Koopa King growled.

In a blink of an eye, the world around them was gone. They didn't feel any forces pulling them back, but from what they were seeing, they knew they were soaring through a lit up tunnel of sorts. Perhaps even a wormhole.  
Rosalina stared right into the distance. The view was so hypnotizing. It felt almost as if it was drilling into her mind. As if that tunnel led to her soul. This gave her quite a headache. She closed her eyes to regain composure.

Just as she opened her eyes again, they got out of tunnel and found themselves in outer space. In front of them, there was a planet. It wasn't the World of Trophies; it had more ground than water, which was the total opposite of where Smash tournaments took place. Despite that, there were plenty of green areas. It also seemed that the atmosphere was less dense, but thanks to those magical golden pins, fighters didn't need to worry about air. This "feature" was implemented because a few stages were located in space, including this very platform, but Rosalina didn't know it was another stage.

The platform flew towards that planet quite fast. It lowered and lowered, closer to the ground, air resistance didn't affect it at all.  
It finally stopped before a peculiar building of minimalistic design. This time not even bad guys knew where they were. At least the surroundings looked quite peaceful.  
Not enough peaceful to prevent Ganondorf from losing his patience.  
— Can anyone tell me... Where are we?! —he exclaimed.  
Wario picked his nose and said as if nothing ever happened:  
— If it took us here, it means there's a reason for it. Hey, maybe this is where that thing is! In that temple!  
— How do you know it's a temple? —Rosalina asked.  
— It doesn't look like a palace, dummy, otherwise I would be already rushing towards it! Hehe.

Having no way of steering the platform to return where they came from, they just got off it. Bowser helped Rosalina leave it in the only way he knew: by grabbing her by her waist as if she was a big sack of potatoes and jumped off with her. Once he loudly landed, Bowser put the princess down. At least Koopa King cared enough to do this, so Rosalina thanked him anyway while wiping dirt off her dress.  
They went to the temple with Ganondorf on lead.

The building actually looked more like a temple inside. There was even an altar far away. Though, there were no idols or anything that would look sacred. In fact, this place was pretty empty, save for curtains and heavily decorated walls. Colors varied but they were all pastel.  
Rosalina got fascinated by the patterns on walls. She pondered on their meaning.

Wario almost ran forward, only to back off immediately. He pulled Ganondorf back, pointing at a certain white thing in front of altar he just noticed.  
The guys recognized the figure and Ganondorf whispered in dismay:  
— Oh, gods damn it...  
— Sheeeet... —Wario expressed irritation, also quietly.  
They quickly and as quietly as possible hid behind the sides of the entrance to that part of temple.

This place was already occupied by someone. Someone bigger than Bowser even.  
They really, really didn't want to cross paths with this... hand.

Rosalina couldn't believe what she was seeing. She tried to blink a couple of times. Perhaps it was a side effect from this awkward trip?  
But it wasn't.  
There really was a big gloved hand floating there. It was preoccupied with something.

Without warning, Ganondorf grabbed the princess by her arms and backed off. He harshly but still quietly addressed everyone:  
— Silence, all of you... don't even sneeze...  
Rosalina obliged, but she couldn't help but wonder how a disembodied hand could hear. And how good it's hearing was.

Judging from noises and peeking from time to time, while covering themselves with curtains, they assumed the hand was doing something under the floor? Something metallic was being moved? Ganondorf could've sworn he heard muffled buzzing too. "Oh gods, not the buzzing." he thought, suspecting the worst.

The draught tickled Rosalina's nose. She tried to stop it, she really did. But despite her best efforts, against her will...

— ah-choo!

And at that moment, their luck ran out.  
The hand stopped whatever it was doing and slowly turned around.

Ganondorf got so angry but he had to hold his anger, hoping the hand wouldn't come to them. Ever since the Subspace incident though, the hand got slightly paranoiac, so of course it would check what was that noise.  
Gerudo man held princess's mouth so firmly, as if he wanted to crush her small delicate face. His heart pounded intensively.

The hand moved towards the entrance. It seemed to look around despite having no eyes. It's palm moved slightly to the left and to the right...

It backed off a bit.  
Was it going away?

The hand turned and all of sudden, it pulled Rosalina from Ganondorf's grasp. None of three fighters felt an urge to help the princess. Instead, they tried to run away but the hand shot energetic fetters towards them and pulled them back. The hand quickly chucked all four of them at the altar.

The princess activated her barrier at a right time and she not only didn't hit the altar but also stood up. The other three guys bonked right onto it. Somehow, Bowser didn't break it with his horns and enormous weight.

After treating them in such ruthless way, the hand proceeded to do something the princess didn't even think it was possible for it to do: to talk.  
— Missed me already? —the hand said in a deep masculine voice and pointed out: — You three always go where you shouldn't, but now I see you brought a "friend"?

Only Bowser stood in Rosalina's defence, since they both come from the same world. Nonetheless, it was still weird that such an egoist like him bothered to speak up.  
— Keep her out of this, Master. She just run into us. What were we supposed to do, leave her all by herself? We would get into even more trouble if we did...

Two details struck the princess. One, that King Koopa called the hand "master". Why would a king be servile towards anyone? And second, the sole fact that Bowser wanted to get her out of this mess implied that something awful was about to happen.

The hand cackled and used his magic to pull the grate away on which the three villains stood. They fell down, under the floor.  
The hand disregarded the princess and lowered himself to stare into a hole which the grate covered before. He told the three:  
— Now that you are here... why won't you entertain me for a while? Heh... heheh.  
The bad guys shook. They were fully aware that the hand's concept of "entertainment" greatly differed from the norm.  
They could hear buzzing somewhere in the corner. The same Ganondorf heard before.

Out of darkness, something blending with shadows flew rapidly towards the three. They screamed:  
— AAAAHHH! NOOO! HHHHGH!

Now was the perfect moment for Rosalina to leave and run away. But where? Outside of course, to that weird platform which carried them here in the first place. Simple, right? She went outside the temple and...

The platform was gone.  
Rosalina took a deep breath to not let irritation overwhelm her, and just decided to fly as far away from that place as she could. Indeed, she was mostly worried about Luma and that she didn't know how to get back to the world where Smash tournament was hosted, but right now was not the time to ponder about it.

She flew through a meadow, over rivers, through a forest, across a planet she had never been to before but it didn't look alien; except for the fact that plants seemed to shine iridescently.  
Eventually, she got tired and sat under a lone tree, pretty sure she got away far enough. The landscape before her was amazing, with mountains in the distance and the starry sky, even though it was afternoon, judging by where the sun was. Just as she moved a bit to look how this world looked like behind her...

— Had a nice trip? —the white hand smugly asked.  
She jumped in terror and shouted:  
— WHO ARE YOU?!  
— Whoa, ahahaha... I won't hurt you. —the hand assured her.  
— Mmhm, riiight. —Rosalina said, not having a single reason to trust this hand after what he did to these three guys. She asked again: — Who are you?  
— Oh, that would take too long to explain. —the hand responded and again jumped to a different subject: — If I recall correctly, you and a couple of other buddies fell from a bridge? You guys went on a little adventure? Can't wait to see more of that.  
— How do you know that?!  
— Magic. Now, were you looking for this, perhaps?  
The hand pointed at the sky. A "star" flew by, stopped and slowly descended, hovering far above them. It was that weird platform again. Before she could say anything, light surrounded her and suddenly she was on the platform, confusing her further more.  
— But... but... —Rosalina didn't want to leave without answers.  
The hand was aware of that and said:  
— It's not the last time we meet, mhmhmh.  
He waved to her and the platform soared away.

Back in the world of floating islands, Peach, Fox and the Brawler managed to get out of the cave, but they were still underground. They hoped that Rosalina found an exit before them somehow, though they felt that they would have to go back there anyway.

The three found themselves in a weird place. It looked like ruins of a cellar.  
It was quite dark in here. Still damp and quiet. And somehow windy; one could only assume it was drought coming from one of corners. It gave them hope that the exit was pretty close.

The group wanted to maintain this silence, not wanting their presence to be known. After Peach came across a peculiar object though, it became a really difficult task.  
Peach really wanted to scream but for some reason she couldn't, so she just covered her mouth in disbelief. And what she saw was a blue lamp, but translucent and shaped like a head of someone, who she saw once. Someone, who caused a lot of problems in the past.  
Peach wished for this thing to only look like a head, but knowing that hand, it was most likely an actual head.  
She poked Fox. His ears backed off in shock. The Brawler also noticed this "lamp". He quickly turned away in disgust.

It got windier and louder. Peach's dress almost rose up.  
Instead of running away from the source of noise, they ran towards it.  
They saw Rosalina descending from the platform. Peach was so relieved. She told the cosmic friend:  
— Finally, oh! We were worried sick about you! You shouldn't have stepped on that thing.  
— Wario pushed me onto it! —Rosalina complained as she got off the platform. — Stars almighty... can anyone explain to me what is going on?  
— Well, this thing we call "Final Destination". —Peach pointed at the platform. — Don't worry, it creeps us out too. Wait, you saw Wario? We were looking for him too, actually...  
— Yes and I saw Bowser and a man with red hair. They looked for something. What was the latter's name? Gan-Ganondorf? Right?  
— Yes! They looked for something in these caves we just left?  
Rosalina proceeded to explain the rest of what happened to her. She barely remembered the time on the platform, only the 'tunnel' and her headache. She told them about the temple too. And about that hand...

The Brawler thought he misheard:  
— H-hand? Excuse me? A hand?!  
Fox decided it was about time newcomers learned something about Smash. He announced:  
— Oh, man... sit back you guys. I'm about to tell you a hell of a tale.

Peach gave him a judgmental look. There was nothing to sit on. Not that she was bothered by a bare ground or anything...

Once everybody got comfortable, Fox started explaining:  
— First of all, that hand and his brother are those who organize this event and invited us all here. I know, weird, bear with me, save questions for later. You already met Crazy. He has enough decency to not scare people off. He too is a hand. A left one. Bowser called the right one 'master' because that's right one's name: Master. I'm not going to waste time on the entire history of Smash, maybe another time. I'll just say, be extra careful with Master, okay? Last time we've seen him, he was livid. We haven't seen him now either but given Smash tournament is happening again, we thought we would see him soon enough. That blue thing? It's a *ahem* head of certain alien who pissed him off.

Fox summarized the events of the Subspace incident and how that "certain alien's" core was used to make a monstrosity against which the three 'bad guys' were pitted to fight against.  
The Brawler suddenly realized it's the same story Zelda told him. He looked at Peach. She knew what he was thinking and nodded before the Mii asked anything. He was so frightened.

The four realized it was getting dark. There was no point in telling stories without campfire, so they decided to talk about these issues another time, maybe even on the way.

It was dawn by the time the group reached the mansion. It had a beacon turned on so it wasn't difficult to find it.  
They didn't know where the rest of their friends were. Maybe there was a way to inform others that they are safe now. Maybe there even was a way to rejoin them? It didn't matter now. They were really tired after walking and jumping among floating islands the whole night. They went to their rooms and fell asleep.

* * *

[5] _I wrote about Shuten Engines on create-n-destroy tumblr_


	4. rescue squad

**4\. rescue squad**

Rosalina wasn't sure if she woke up first or last. Probably first, because the Mansion was empty and she didn't want to wake others up, if they were still in their rooms. She did hear a familiar growling though, or rather, snorting. Bowser slept somewhere. That meant Ganondorf and Wario were back too. The princess guessed it was the hand that brought them here and she did not want to see him at all. But she remembered the hand said they would meet again, so she had to prepare herself mentally.  
No other being in the whole cosmos intimidated her this much. The hand seemed to be a provocative type so the princess couldn't let him break her composure. Not this time.  
She still had so many questions keeping her mind busy. She wasn't sure if she wanted them to be ever answered.

Rosalina went outside. There were plenty of clouds in the sky and below her but other than that, the weather was just as good as yesterday. She wondered about Luma's whereabouts, but she was certain they were safe with Mario.

A gust hit her, making her gown wave. At first, Rosalina thought it was normal; air tends to circulate more violently at these heights, but something was off.  
Only now she noticed a silhouette of a hand on a nearby floating island. He just floated in place, maybe also looking at the sky. Was he there this entire time or did he just appear?  
As much as she was curious, the princess really didn't want to confront him. At least now. She went back to the mansion. Hastily.

The Brawler was awake, sitting on the couch in the enormous living room and finishing his sandwich. He noticed Rosalina and immediately shared his thoughts that bothered him since last night.  
— Yo, if I knew a god damn sentient limb was involved in this, I would never sign up for this. Nuh-uh. No way.  
— Could you not bring this up? He is literally outside. —Rosalina politely informed.  
The Mii almost choked on his sandwich. The thought that the hand might be hearing him right now spooked him. He asked the princess anyway:  
— Y-you think what does he do to people who tick him off? Also rip off their heads? Like with that blue alien?  
— Ask Bowser. Or Wario. I'm sure they have quite a record to share. —she replied and added to not scare him off much. — As you can see though, they are alive and well, no matter what happens to them.  
— Mmmm still don't like that. —Brawler admitted. Then, another question came to his mind: — But do you think someone actually died here? I mean among other fighters.  
— I don't think he is that dangerous. I just find him off-putting.  
— Well, duh. There's nothing normal about that... guy.

These thoughts combined with Bowser's snorting didn't make best atmosphere. As a matter of fact, it made both of newcomers feel uncomfortable.  
It actually made Rosalina want to go outside again and Brawler wanted to come along but once she touched door's handle, a cackle coming from behind startled them.

There he was. Giggling and lying on a couch, barely fitting on it actually. A second ago he was still outside.  
— Wh-what's so funny?! —Brawler asked, genuinely scared.  
But Master Hand didn't answer. He just giggled. Then, he got up and brought up a different topic:  
— So. I've heard Fox told you a thing or two.  
The newcomers were baffled. How did he know that? Did he observed them from afar? Did somebody tell him? Did he hear that previous conversation too?  
The hand didn't wait for their response and went on:  
— Yes, that was not a great moment, that incident... In fact, it was humiliating, let's be honest. Fear not, though. Those pins are meant to save your skin. Even from the likes of me, heheheh.

Suddenly, an alarm went off.  
The hand without hesitation moved towards the room where the main computer was. The room where he watched over tournaments and this planet. The princess and the Mii followed him, still feeling discomfort but what else they were supposed to do.

A robot was there. It had a small rectangular head with two round visors and a thin body on which wide arms and wide base with engine were attached. It's head moved back and forth trying to comprehend everything at once going on the screens. It noticed Master and informed:  
— problem. problem.  
— What's the matter, R.O.B? —the hand demanded information.  
— checked status. lost signal. alert! alert! trophies are missing. alert! alert!

The points on the map were blinking red.  
Invasion was happening. Though really slowly, or maybe it didn't advance at all? The points didn't move.  
Yellow points indicated the last known location of fighters. They was placed a few hundred kilometers away from invaders and even further from the mansion. Those guys were quick.  
— How are we supposed to find them? —Rosalina asked.  
— Don't worry. —the hand said. — Crazy should be with them. If I locate him, then we will know. In the meantime, go wake everyone up. You too R.O.B.

The two newecomers and the robot went upstairs where fighters had their rooms.  
The Mii was about to open the door to one of bedrooms but he heard Ganondorf's voice. Maybe there was no need to wake him up? But the man didn't know what was happening so Brawler had to go and inform him anyway.  
When he opened the door, the Brawler stumbled upon an unsettling scene: the Gerudo man was still sleeping, but he was twitching and mumbling "I crash. I burn. I crash. I burn. Get away. I crash. I burn."[6] He must have been going through a hell of a nightmare.  
Not carrying about results, Brawler shouted:  
— Hey! Get up! —and he smacked Ganondorf in the face.  
— AH! —the man loudly gasped. He had to comment: — Ssstupid brat, how dare you...  
— I fear that hand more than you. He told me to wake you up.  
— W-w-what? He's here? Damn it...

For some reason, Bowser and Wario didn't end up having nightmares. But the moment they recalled what happened yesterday, they shuddered.  
In contrast, Peach and Fox slept just fine.

Once they all returned to the computer room, a pretty big dark blue chest decorated with silver, gold and rubies caught their attention. Fox went out of his way to check it out. It was one of those magical chests that were more voluminous than it should be possible.

The hand just lay flat on the panel while screens were giving out errors and other signs of being unable to locate his brother or any of fighters. He didn't have to worry about Crazy, he probably wasn't on this planet. But why? Shouldn't he have been alerted that something wrong was going on? R.O.B was in this room most of the time, how come he only noticed today that they were gone?  
Master set up a scan on communication services, to check if an antenna on the roof worked.  
Just as he suspected, the invaders were somehow blocking signals. Therefore, whatever the map showed could not be accurate enough. It could also explain why no point on the map moved.  
Overall, this situation was getting more serious that Master would like it to ever be. Unwanted "guests" are always annoying to deal with.

Master's thinking process was interrupted by Fox complaining about the chest's content:  
— But... there are only items. The same ones we use in arenas.  
The hand got slightly irritated by that complaint. He said:  
— ...Don't bring up that "No items; Final Destination" shtick now! You need everything we have.  
Fox was not a fan of items, considering he already carried some things with him: a blaster, a reflector and all that. He understood though why they were helpful now more than ever before.

The hand also elaborated on a different issue:  
— Normally, I would just make a rift so you would get to the place instantly. But let's be honest, those invaders are probably waiting for you with open arms and loaded guns. So just go to the garage and drive there. I've sent the coordinates.

The fighters prepared themselves. Bowser took the chest with items. Peach stopped for a moment, as she noticed the hand didn't move an inch.  
— What about you? Won't you help? —she hoped that he got over his grudge.

Master glanced at the pink princess. It took awkwardly long for him to answer, as if he wanted to challenge her hopes. But she stared at him with determination, being to some extend familiar with his tricks and so, she armed herself with patience.  
Master finally responded, but not how she would have liked it:  
— Where would be the fun in making things easy for you all?

Rosalina joined in and reminded him:  
— They are in danger, you know!  
— They are always in danger. —Master said, unfazed. — And especially you were. Who knows where that dreaded platform would have taken you?  
The Brawler got irritated and exclaimed:  
— So you are just going to sit here and watch?!  
— Heh, I wish. — the hand said.  
— Can't you just come with us?  
— No, the whole Universe needs me!  
— What?! Whole universe?  
But before the Mii could query more, the hand phased through a wall into a completely different planet.  
Being kind of disappointed by this outcome, Peach addressed the robot:  
— What about you, R.O.B? Don't you want to go with us?  
— pardon, your majesty, but i do not want to be reminded of what i lost. —it responded.  
— Oh! Oh... I see.

And so they set off, four heroes and three rivals of their friends. One would assume such a party wouldn't go along for long, but other than being annoying and harsh, three bad guys weren't that bad. At least for now.  
Wario rode his bike, Bowser - his clown car, and the rest were boarding some spacious futuristic hovering vehicle steered by Fox.  
The ride was pretty boring, save for changing sceneries. Only Peach was in mood to talk, everyone else was focused on their inner thoughts. Especially Rosalina, who was disconcerted by that hand. So many questions left unanswered...

Meanwhile, completely disconnected from everything that was going on, little mister still wandered around. Previously, he found that the trace he followed led to a cave, but he didn't want to enter it and so he moved on to something else.  
This time he discovered an even more interesting trace. Many small dots, many oval impressions, and a carriage-like vehicle left behind. Little mister wanted to check if it still worked. Unfortunately, it ran out of energy, but there was no one around to stop him from pretending he can drive.

Unlike little mister, the fighters knew what abandoned vehicles meant. They stopped to look around but they didn't leave their own vehicles.

Something bad happened.  
They haven't seen the carriage they used to ride, but they saw plenty of other machines. Blue racing vehicle, a broken Dragoon, somewhere in the distance a spiky white and blue spacecraft was on fire. There were also other vehicles lying around but they didn't belong to anyone specific; anyone from the mansion could've taken them.  
All this mess made the fighters think what in the name of entire pantheon happened.

Peach noticed a figure in the distance. Fox also saw it. The two pulled out binoculars which were a part of their vehicle's equipment. Fox asked:  
— Who is that?  
— I don't know. Falco? Judging by the Arwing... —Peach assumed.  
— No, that ain't Falco. Not feathery enough. Doesn't even look like a bird.  
— But he's blue.  
— Wait! Wait... —Fox realized something. — Didn't Ness once tell us about these guys?  
— What guys? —Peach asked.  
— You know, Starmen? Silver dudes with noodle arms? Except this one is blue?  
— Oh! Oh yes, it does look like one but, are they supposed to have an X-shaped visor?  
— Uh, I don't think so...

Rosalina overheard their conversation and suggested:  
— Umm, I think we should leave before whoever that is notices us.  
She had a point. Drivers obliged and they left this place.  
Now everyone was aware they entered a dangerous territory where beings they had never encountered before (except one psychic boy) roamed around. Nevertheless, they had no choice but to move onwards, to save their friends.

The fighters reached an area deprived of greenery of any sort. An area covered in rocks and gravel. It got cloudy too. In the distance there was a volcano or rather, what was left of it; an enormous crater. Behind it, a red aura glowed, giving a sign that there was a lot of lava far, far away. Normally, they would avoid this place but ironically, this was the safer route.  
Safer from mountain range where there probably was not enough space to ride through.[7]

They felt something hit their hovering vehicle.  
Quite a number of robots attacked them. They were round, had many glowing "eyes", had two detached arm cannons, and cones attached to the bottom part of their bodies.  
It was better to get out than to let these bots destroy their only ways of transportation.

The fighters jumped out of vehicles. Bowser immediately stomped on something upon landing.  
He and Ganondorf aggressively rushed into battle while Wario reached for the item chest and threw Smart Bombs and Bob-ombs at robots. Robots that managed to avoid explosions rushed at Wario, forcing him to stop fighting like a coward, from a distance. The fat guy got baffled by this turn of events.

Seeing the currently abandoned item chest, Rosalina reached for a Star Rod, because she had no reach without her Luma, but lack of their help didn't render her useless. She could still use her cosmic magic. The princess flailed these robots gracefully together with Peach.

Fox focused on defending their vehicles with Super Scope, but suddenly he realized how many robots there were. Hundreds of them. They were surrounded.  
It didn't seem to be a problem, because the fighters were trained for such situation, through Multi-Man matches. But those enemies were smarter than any of Fighting Teams veterans faced before. These robots could dodge and deflect projectiles. They could even group themselves for a coordinated attack.  
The fighters were making some kind of progress, but they were concerned that they will get tired before defeating all these bots. Perhaps that was robots' whole strategy; to get their opponents tired and then deal the final blow?

As Fox witnessed, that seemed to be the case. Wario couldn't keep up anymore and once robots took notice he couldn't land a single hit on them anymore, they combined their attacks to instantly turn the fat guy into a trophy. Then, one of them shot a net out and tried to take the trophy away.  
Fox was about to run off to save Wario, but Bowser reacted before him, charging at the enemies.

The Brawler's way of fighting seemed to be too predicable. Robots had no problems avoiding him by just backing off and one of bots even shot out a net, constraining the Mii. As he tried to break free, the Mii didn't notice there was a deep pit behind him. He turned, he twisted, and...

He fell. Down the hole with spiky rocks at the bottom.  
This couldn't end well, even with that fail-safe magic. The Brawler expected a stab in the head any second now, covering his eyes midair.  
Any second now...  
Any second...  
Any millisecond...  
Why he didn't feel anything yet?  
He uncovered his eyes. Spiky rocks were right before him. But the Brawler didn't fall anymore. He was hanging in the air. That felt so wrong. He wiggled a bit. He felt one of his legs being restrained by something. Finally, the Brawler glanced at what was above him.

Crazy Hand was holding him by the leg.  
"Oh, gods..." the Mii thought, consternated.  
— Heyo! Remember me?! —the hand asked.  
— Oh! It's... you! —the Mii recognized that voice.  
— Don't say you mistook me for my bro! Hehehe, typical.

The left hand took the Brawler out of the pit and dropped him on the ground.  
Then instantly, Crazy rushed to do what he does best: to bring destruction upon the enemies.  
He jumped through dimensions to not give enemies a chance to react properly, punching them into each other, firing lasers and making them explode. The hand was having so much fun doing this.  
When he was done, Crazy appeared before the fighters with all of his fingers straightened out and felt an urge to say "ta-da!".  
Peach clapped. Everyone else stared at the erratic hand, dumbfounded by how effortlessly he defeated these foes.

After everyone got up and Wario was awoken from trophy state, Crazy had to ask:  
— What are you doin' here? Only I find some fun in this god-forsaken place, but you? And what were these Sentry Bots doing here too? Couldn't you have just wavedashed out of here?  
— What? "Wavedash"?[8] Huh? —Fox got confused.  
— ...What do you mean you forgot about it?

Ganondorf explained:  
— Ugh, we are here because was the shortest way to get to our destination. As for these enemies, we don't know.  
Peach mentioned:  
— Early on we saw a Starman, I think...  
— It was indeed a Starman. —Fox affirmed her. —It just had a weird visor.  
Crazy was genuinely astonished.  
— Starman... Starmen? Here?! Ughhh... not good. —he commented. — I thought they worked only for one fiend.

Rosalina recalled another issue. She asked the left hand:  
— Where were you when the invasion begun? Your brother tried to find you, but couldn't.  
— Nowhere here, that's the problem. —Crazy said. — Though... Even if I was with them, I would not be able to stop a whooole invasion all by myself. Don't chu worry, we will rescue them! We will sneak by, yes, so no one will know what's brewin'. And then, once we will get everyone, we will CHARGE at those fools! And it will be great!

The cosmic princess had her doubts, like everyone else, but she was glad someone here was enthusiastic enough to boost morale.  
Peach still wondered:  
— What about, you know, him?  
— Hm. He's too busy being grumpy. His loss, heheh. —Crazy replied.  
— But you are trying to convince him to join us, right? —Peach was curious.  
— I'm trying whenever the opportunity shines. You know how willful he is though. In the end of the day, he's gotta convince himself.  
Pink princess' head lowered. The left hand reacted:  
— Hey! Don't get upset over some meanie who doesn't want to forgive! And if he will ever try to raise his fingers on you, I'll be there to stop him. I won't let him take it out on you. No!  
— I doubt he will seriously hurt us. —Peach pointed out. — I just want Smash to go on...  
— Heh, same.

Someone was losing their patience:  
— ARE YOU DONE YET?! —Ganondorf shouted.  
— Oh, look, another grump. —Crazy commented. — We should move on before that guy lashes out, if you know what I'm sayin'.  
The princess and the hand giggled, further annoying Gerudo man with all the kindness.  
The fighters returned to their vehicles and continued their journey. Crazy Hand flew nearby them, showing off his nimbleness (and recklessness) from time to time.

Somehow, Rosalina didn't feel as uncomfortable near the left hand as with the right one, even though the former's movement of fingers were creepy. Personality mattered, not their appearance.  
However, there were still things about the left hand the princess had hard time comprehending. She never expected someone with destructive tendencies to be so nice and joyful.

The fighters eventually got out off the rocky area. It was relieving to see grass again.

* * *

[6] _"Questions?" reference; another fanfic on this site._

[7] _No, i didn't really make up this location. It's Stage Builder's lava background from SSB4._

[8] _Meta joke; god knows what it suggests._


	5. beyond her reach

**5\. beyond her reach**

Crazy Hand was actually serious about his made on spot plan. Invaders knew they didn't get every trophy and they expected more to come. Best Crazy could do was to distract the enemies while fighters try to free others.

The party approached what looked like a caravan moving far away from them.  
Fox and Peach pulled out binoculars to take a closer look. What they saw was displeasing.

Their friends were turned into trophies and carried away in carriages like they were some loot. If those invaders managed to defeat nearly all of these warriors, it meant the survivors were in danger.  
What an irony. The broken bridge saved them from meeting this fate.

The group waited for a moment when carriages would be left behind, while Crazy quietly moved away from them and hid between boulders to observe enemies, waiting for a good moment to attack.  
He wanted to slow them down or scare them away, using his destructive magic. There was a risk though that he could lose these trophies by doing it, so he hesitated.

From behind, he felt a big poke. He knew exactly who it was. The left hand greeted his sibling in a rather snarky way:  
— About time, asshole.  
— Come on. —the right hand said. — They won't leave those trophies for a long while. Don't bother.  
— If you won't do it then I gotta. —Crazy argued.  
— I also wait for a good moment. —Master informed. — But there are just too many of them. And for what do these idiots want these trophies anyway?  
— I literally don't care what they want, bro. We have to save Smashers, no matter what. Yeah, yeah, you are still mad at them, but they are my friends.  
— "Friends", huh? —the right hand slightly taunted his brother.

Crazy was not into having another argument about this topic, so he didn't say anything. He noticed from corner of his area of sight that the right hand was leaving.  
— Hey. Hey! —Crazy tried to stop him.  
— Relax... —Master whispered. — I've got this. You do your thing while I'll... heh...  
The right hand didn't have to say anything else for left one to guess he was planning to straight up assassinate these goons.  
Crazy clenched his fist in disapproval.  
— What? —Master took notice of this reaction. — Do you want to save your so called "friends" or not?  
— ...Whatever. —Crazy responded.

The hands made themselves invisible and flew towards the caravan.  
It was guarded by Sentry Bots the fighters faced earlier before and Starmen with X-shaped visors. The former had 360° vision and as they all witnessed before, great strategic skills it seemed. The latter instead of walking normally, Starmen constantly teleported, even for small distances, inch by inch.  
This was going to be tricky mission.

Fox and Peach kept watching the caravan. Without warning, explosions started to occur.  
The two saw how enemies' attention was clearly caught, and like birds following a trail of breadcrumbs, these aliens followed explosions to eventually notice a big left hand throwing energetic bombs towards them.  
This turned out to work too well, as fighters eventually completely lost the sight of invaders.  
Now was their time to act.

The fighters run up to the abandoned caravan. It took them a while because the caravan was left quite far away from them.  
Once they reached it, they smiled at each other. Except Ganondorf. He just wanted to be done with this.  
The moment Peach touched one of carriages though...

On the spur of the moment, the aliens teleported back.  
Fighters froze in place. How did that happen? How did they know?  
No alarms could be heard, though some parts of Sentry Bots' and Starmen were blinking red.  
Most of invaders came back to carriages to get trophies away right this instant, while the rest attacked the fighters by shooting large lasers and beams at them.  
They couldn't do anything about it but retreat.  
And so they ran and dodged, but Bowser, Wario and Ganondorf weren't agile enough and got hit by one of lasers. Peach got pretty ahead of everyone, but she tripped and got hit too. Anyone hit was instantly turned into a trophy.  
The Brawler, Fox and Rosalina managed to get far away enough for enemies to cease fire. When the three turned around, the aliens were gone.

Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.  
Not only nobody was rescued, but also more people got snatched away. Only Fox, Rosalina and Brawler were left.  
They flew away with their vehicle, tired and upset. Some time later, in the distance they noticed someone they haven't seen this whole time.

There he was; "facing" with his palm away from them; looking around and pondering; ruining established order of things just by existing. Fox stopped the vehicle, hoping to get some information from the hand.  
Rosalina wasn't afraid of Master anymore, now that she knew he is in fact, against common sense, a known occurrence around these parts.

In this particular moment, Rosalina was actually enraged that the hand did not come to help them. Usually, she bottled up her feelings but this time she was just unable to. This lack of care for others, especially when that hand had all the power and time to help them, made her blood boil.  
She yelled at him before Fox could say anything:  
— MASTER! Were we NOT ENOUGH IN DANGER FOR YOU?!  
The hand slowly turned around, in a direction humans cannot normally twist their wrists, floated like that for a moment, and in a blink of an eye appeared closer to the group.  
— You are not my slave. —he said with a tint of sass.  
And with this sentence alone he confused all of them, because each of them interpreted it differently. They said almost at the same time:  
— Don't start with that crisis of yours again! —Fox shouted.  
— W-What? of course I'm not, what are you onto?! —Rosalina commented, baffled.  
— We might as well be, with this whole trophy thing! —the Brawler complained.  
The hand explained rather calmly, pointing his index finger at the Mii first to make it obvious to whom he replied:  
— I turned you into trophies so you won't dismay me with DYING.  
Then he retracted the finger and pointed this time at Fox and feeling annoyance said:  
— I did NOT name myself. Who do you think I am, a megalomaniac? I couldn't care less... And you...! —now he addressed Rosalina and finally got to the point. — You are heroes here, not me. You can take care of yourself just fine.  
That only made Rosalina feel worse. She hissed:  
— Just fine?! JUST FINE? Then why did almost everyone get kidnapped?!  
— You screwed it up, not me, nor Crazy. —Master claimed. — I was taking these fools out one by one but then they suddenly disappeared and I had no clue why or where. You tell me why.

As much as his response was rude, what the hand said was true. Crazy made sure to lure enemies as far as possible from the caravan, to the point of loosing sight of it. The alarm was just a signal sent to robots, not a sound. For all Master knew, these robots and Starmen could have just fled away to call for reinforcements. Only when he returned to where caravan was supposed to be did he realize what happened. Didn't change the fact that instead of slowly flying back, Master could've come much quicker to save fighters in time.

The princess was about to comment but suddenly, everyone heard something. A sound of something mechanical approaching them.

Once the strange entity arrived, the hand immediately covered the fighters with his fingers and harshly ordered this stranger:  
— State your business.

The stranger was a purple-ish, slightly brown alien, with one eye and two eyestalks, a small round body, a goofy grin, and a lot of tentacles. This kind of alien, called Nook, also was encountered in the past by a certain boy with psychic powers. Unlike those other Nooks however, this one sat atop a four-legged round machine with three turrets, to some extend resembling a spider.  
The alien spoke up, prolonging some vowels for some odd reason:  
— Whaaat an attempt at outsmaaarting us. Aaah aaah aaah.  
— What do you want? —the hand snarled.  
— Myyy liiiege tooold me thiings about youu and seeks proof. Sooo, youuu are the one they aaall caaall the Creator of this Uuuniverse. What prooooof do you haaave to support such booold claim?

Without hesitance, the hand snapped his fingers, and instantaneously, Nook fell down, having lost the hold of their body. Both their muscles and their organs were paralyzed. Only their will to live remained, which longed for air and heartbeat like never before.

Then, Master pressed his giant index finger on alien's body, and just like that, they could breathe and move again. But the moment Master lifted the finger, the privilege of living was at stake again. Cachinnating, the hand repeated this movement a couple of times, quickly enough to not let Nook die and long enough so they will get to know well the terror of dying.  
It was so fun the hand almost forgot what was the point of doing this. On the whim, Master regained composure and with mocking tone answered that question:  
— Mortal kind is not of my craft... But you are made of same matter as stardust and you abide to the same rules as it, therefore to my will too. Now you tell me... How does it feel to look right into Death's eyes? How does it feel... to be alive...  
He lifted his finger one more time and with delay he snapped fingers to remove the curse. The body was alien's again.[9]

Nook quickly crawled back to the machine that gave them power, coughing intensively.  
— Aaand they saay viooolence is not the aaanswer.  
— Now go back where you came from. —the hand ordered while clenching his fist and slowly moving towards the Nook.  
— Uuhuhuhu, youu think I'm thaaat stuupid to fight you alooone? Now I knooow...  
Nook backed off with their Spiderbot and teleported out of this place.

Rosalina and the Brawler were so terrified of what just happened that they felt an urge to run away. Fox just stood in one place, his eyes being wide open. After a while, Fox went ahead and pulled Master Hand by his glove to ask:  
— Shouldn't you have, uh, asked this guy questions? What do they want? Who sent them here?  
— Oh, but I know... —Master said in a calm tone, but it was still possible to tell he didn't feel calm at all. — I just didn't think they would bother with this planet... It's as if, they were looking specifically for me.  
— Uhh, why would they? Do you owe them something? —Fox asked.  
— They think the prospect of creating anything they wish for is worth all the risk. —Master elaborated. — Idiots. It's not something I gained one day that can be just taken away. It is a part of me.

Rosalina's anger reignited and she scolded the hand:  
— That was so awful! Was that really necessary?!  
— All I did was deprive them of electricity in their nervous system. —Master explained and admitted: — Heh, it felt like switching a toy on and off, mhmhahahaha.  
The princess scowled at the hand. He added:  
— What... Would you rather have me make a black hole? Pull the moon out of the orbit? Rip spacetime fabric apart? Or maybe make the planet turn backwards? All of these options are way more dangerous than toying with one individual by bending laws of physics against them.

She had enough. The princess groaned, turned around and went back to the vehicle. The Brawler followed her. Fox just shrugged this whole argument off. They flew away while the hand took Bowser's clown car and Wario's bike back to the mansion.

The sun was setting as they flew onwards.  
The Brawler fell asleep. Fox was getting tired too and was planning on stopping so he could get some proper rest too.  
Rosalina gazed outside the window, at the clouds colored orange, pink and grey. She was slowly calming down but all these thoughts in her head made her feel uneasy.

She could not believe that guy. That monster created what she swore to protect? The beautiful cosmos she loved? No way. Couldn't be.  
Rosalina felt obliged to fight him. But then reason came back to her and with it, more problems.  
First of all, she couldn't do it alone. Secondly and most importantly, was the hand really a monster? If he would have been anything like Ganondorf, why are these Smash tournaments even happening? Wouldn't the hand kidnap her instead of letting her go that one time? And there was also the part where not everyone even fears him...

The situation was getting more complicated than Rosalina would like it to be. There was no other way of finding out the truth but by talking with him. "Talk to the hand" they say "because there is no face (or heart) to even speak of".  
She was not in the mood for that. Not after what happened.  
Sleep. That should calm her down. Sweet, sweet sleep...  
The vehicle stopped among trees. None of them bothered to leave it. The three dozed off inside of it.

Meanwhile, somewhere else, a lonely light wandered.  
It was Luma. They escaped the moment most of fighters were captured. They couldn't turn into a trophy anyway.  
They were seriously concerned about their mama but determination to find her was stronger than fear. They would find her eventually, right?  
They could hear distinctive beeps and boops. Luma crossed paths with little shadow mister.  
Despite being flat, he could somehow move forward and backward. He walked up closer to the star child.  
Both of them had problems communicating with each other (and with most of people too), but at least they weren't alone anymore. Especially during this night. They continued wandering together.

Who knows what hour it was. Could be long after midnight.  
Rosalina was awoken by some horrid loud noise. The Mii was a heavy sleeper. Fox's ears didn't even twitch. She wished she could sleep that deeply.  
"Good heavens, what was that?" she wondered about the noise.  
A thunder? But clouds were too scarce for that, now matter where she looked at.  
A falling tree? Who was cutting trees at this time?

The cosmic princess felt obliged to get out and examine the surroundings. She made her wand light up and left the vehicle.  
Only now she noticed there was something flying among the clouds. There was also something shining behind clouds but it wasn't moon.  
The noise boomed again. So unpleasant, as if it was...  
Actually, it was Master cracking his knuckles.[10]

Rosalina squinted her eyes in displeasure. "Well then, now or never..." she encouraged herself.  
She launched into the sky and landed on clouds. The source of light was a strange object made out of seemingly same crystals as the ones she saw in that cave. The light was still very mesmerizing.

Soon enough, Master Hand landed nearby her. For some weird reason she hesitated to speak up.  
The hand fell on a thick piece of cloud, made himself comfortable, and told her:  
— Yes, I know what you feel. We can duke it out later; light up the sky a bit, heh. Now, go ahead. Ask. That's probably why you are awake.

Rosalina wanted to say "No, it was because of your knuckles, you dip" but it didn't matter and she never insulted anybody ever. The princess also sat down on a sticking up part of the cloud and went straight to the point, asking:  
— Are you a friend or a foe?  
The hand giggled and said:  
— Neither.  
That response didn't help at all.  
— What do you mean by that? —she queried.  
— That "good vs. evil" conundrum? Not for me. —the hand confessed. — I want to sit back and watch, and maybe mess things up a bit. When I feel like it, sometimes I go to one side, and sometimes to the other. Depends on context.  
— I don't understand.

Master proceeded to explain:  
— Every story needs a bad guy, but hardly anyone wants to be one. Everyone wishes to be a hero; to do something for the greater good and be praised for it. "Greater good" means more to them than people's lives. They just say their enemies aren't people and call it a day...  
— What are you talking about? —Rosalina got baffled. — Of course no one wants to be a villain! If everyone was selfish and unwilling to compromise, we wouldn't accomplish anything.  
— I'm just being honest. —the hand said. — Look at all these autocrats. None of them ever admit that what they do is awful. Would make sense if they lied to people while actually wanting to do terrible things, but that's what fairy tale villains do. Life is not a fairy tale. Tyrants lie not only to others, but to themselves too.  
— What about you then? —the princess asked further.  
— Oh, mhmhm. Being a bad guy once in a while is pretty fun. —Master claimed. — Throwing obstacles and enemies at a hero, dropping some poison, hijacking a spaceship, assassinating someone pesky, causing a storm to make a ship sink, juggling all of you on Final Destination... things like that. I could go on.  
— "Once in a while"? Not always?  
— No, no. —the hand objected and clarified: — Even the most entertaining things get boring when they are done constantly without a break. There are times where I like to be mean, but I also like to just take a nap while embracing a friend or two. Or draw some dynamic scene. Or just make something in general, a gadget, a gem, whatever. There is no pure goodness and pure evil. There are more colors to it than black and white. And these colors can be put together in various patterns... heh. You know I'm in a mood to paint when I'm starting to get deep about colors.

Master's take on morality was something else. It was easy for him to be an outsider, considering he was a deity of sorts.  
Still, the thought that the fate of everyone living in this universe was dependent on this hand's mood was terrifying. What for others was a matter of life and death, for the hand it was a matter of whether it was entertaining or boring.

The princess went on with questions:  
— What's the point of this tournament then? You borrow us like toys and do with us whatever you want?  
— Smash isn't really a tournament, because there are no true winners here. —Master said. — It is a spectacle! A show, for you and me, to combat the dreaded boredom. Not only by fighting, but also discovering how others' worlds work. —but then he admitted. — As much as I am tempted to go a step beyond, I don't own you, therefore I can't. Since the second Smash, this spectacle stopped being about me, but about you and your newfound friendships. Nonetheless, I still remain the one, who allows all of this to happen.

Rosalina gazed upon the starry sky for a good while, reflecting on what she had just heard.  
She knew of legends about various gods; how everytime people met one of such powerful figures they felt overwhelmed by reverence or ecstasy.  
She didn't feel awe though, just great discomfort. The kind of discomfort some people experience when they see things not being placed in the "right" way, not properly aligned, not harmonious enough; and they can't do anything about it.[11]

At last, Rosalina asked one more question.  
— ...Did... did you really make all of this? —she asked, while still looking at the sky.  
At first the hand was reluctant to answer. Despite his overall attitude, he detested boasting. So he tried to answer in neutral way.  
— I made the principles. —he said quietly, as if not to disturb the calmness of this place. — Whatever celestial bodies I originally created are long time gone. Now their corpses and offspring enrich this space.

Being passionate about cosmos was the only thing these two had in common, and nothing else.  
The princess wanted people to look at stars with hope, but the being who brought them into existence appeared to seek the opposite: to turn everything against people.  
She couldn't understand what was so fun about it for him.

The hand bothered her, interrupting her thinking process:  
— So are we going to fight or not? I'll give you a fair shot.  
— Wha- No. —she declined.  
— Oh, I know you would love to.  
— No!  
— Well, you will eventually... —he gave a hint on what's to come in the future.

The dawn was approaching. Rosalina decided to return to the vehicle, being tired and unable to think of more questions.

In the morning, the fighters resumed their journey. This time Rosalina slept like a baby.  
It was quite suspicious that they didn't encounter any aliens since that failed attempt at rescuing their friends. Maybe the invaders just didn't bother to set out far, knowing that the three were approaching their base? At this point the three felt they were flying into a huge trap. But they couldn't just abandon their friends either.  
They had no choice but to keep on going.

* * *

[9] _Since i prefer to think that these characters simply come from different worlds and not whole universes, i had to impose a specific limitation on MH's part to not deny other deities' roles. To put it simply: Master created the cosmos, but_ _not life_ _(hence_ " _Mortal kind is not of my craft"). Big difference. Other gods like Golden Goddesses or Arceus did create life and reshaped the planets.  
MH is extremely knowledgeable but still far from being omniscient. He lacked the necessary knowledge to create living beings. Whether he knows more about biology now or not is unknown. Best not to think about what kind of experiments he might have done._

[10] _Applied one of my headcanons. Can be found on create-n-destroy tumblr_

[11] _As i mentioned on dA, i see MH as a being of chaos, rather than order. This is why Rosalina doesn't feel comfortable near him; she is the one representing order here._


	6. all the world seeks disaster

**6\. "all the world seeks disaster"[13]**

It was afternoon.  
To pass time and make the travel not so dull, the three fighters chatted about their past adventures.  
Rosalina told them about how she helped Mario save their home galaxy from Bowser's foolish plan, twice, and how she and Mario's friends had to help fairies free their princesses from Bowser's clutches.[12]  
Fox talked about his brave father, his rivals and friends other than Falco, and planets he came across while flying to confront an evil scientist.  
The Brawler didn't have much to say, except about how one time he was hired to rescue a monarch. Back then, he actually wielded a sword, but later on he begun to resent that weapon. Those ghosts he came across were so unbearable...[14]

Despite great danger awaiting them beyond the horizon, sharing stories turned unpleasant journey into a fun trip. For a moment they forgot the goal of this journey, thinking they are going for vacations or something.

But reality quickly reminded them of itself.  
Something was not right. It was not as quiet as before. The Brawler caught Fox and Rosalina's attention:  
— Guys, do you hear something?  
The two tried to pick up what the Mii was asking about.

A faint but disturbing noise could be heard. They weren't human but Rosalina was able to tell those were... squeals. Horrid high-pitched screams.  
They stopped the vehicle, got out of it, and ran towards the direction the noise was coming from, but the closer they were, the weaker the noise was becoming. They reached the place and witnessed a rather awful scene.

Starmen seemed to have ambushed Master Hand but they didn't land a single hit on him. The aliens lay unconscious on the ground and slightly colored smoke was coming out of their visors.  
The hand made their own powers turn against them, frying their bodies and minds. That's how weak-willed henchmen were easily put down.

Even though these aliens were their enemies, Rosalina couldn't stand such heartless display.  
— Why do you have to be so cruel?! —she shouted.  
— Oh! hmhmhm... —Master seemed to be delighted by what he has done. He casually explained: — You are not the only one bothered by my methods. My twin also cannot stand this. But that is how this world works, where once you show mercy, hardly anyone thinks you are a threat anymore.

The princess regretted asking. She had enough with this hand.  
She was shaking her head in disbelief and returned to the vehicle in hurry. Fox and the Brawler also were perturbed by this gruesome scene and backed off.  
They drove away.

The relaxing mood they had just regained was lost. Once again, they were sitting in silence, absorbed in their thoughts.  
"That is how this world works"? Lies. Dirty, disguising lies... The heroes really wanted these words to be just lies. These words stood against every virtue they had.

At dusk, the fighters stopped and set up a campfire, because the air got quite cold.  
Rosalina though, walked away a certain distance, because fire's light bothered her in watching the sky. The cold didn't bother her.  
The cosmic princess looked at the starry sky.  
They didn't bring her bliss this night.  
No. No, she can't let that freak flip her world upside down.

— Are you okay? —a raspy, kind of high-pitched male voice asked.  
Rosalina turned around, only to see a red-eyed Mii. She said in monotonic voice:  
— You don't need to hide your true self.  
— I mean, it's dark and I, uh, didn't want to scare you off... But well then, if you don't mind!  
Red energetic fetters detached from the Mii. It was just a husk, a disguise, a doll.

A giant left hand slowly descended to "sit" next to the princess, at least as slowly as it was possible for him because he was quite a lively one. His fingers moved like spider's legs.  
Crazy asked again:  
— What's the matter? You don't look ok...  
— Your brother... —she muttered.  
— Ahh! That bastard. —he interrupted her. — I know. What do you think we always argue about? Th-this!  
— Why is he like this? —she asked the left hand.  
— Well, if you spent some time with me, I would annoy you too. For different reasons.  
— Huh? Why...  
— I wreck stuff! Even unintentionally. He hurts people and I damage their possessions. And... and I enjoy it a lot. Ss-sorry in advance. I know nobody enjoys their stuff being broken.  
— Oh.  
Rosalina realized that she was talking with the bringer of disasters. If not all then most of them.

Crazy told her:  
— Look, in order to be closer to getting all of this, I want you to listen carefully and forget about everything you know. Like, just don't assume anything right away. You may think you are already open-minded but not in this case. Please...  
The princess nodded. She closed her eyes and was all ears.

Crazy Hand distanced himself quite a bit away from Rosalina, to not harm her while he moved intensively. That's just what he did while being focused. He was always so full of energy.

Crazy started explaining, as well as he could:  
— You guys always want it one way and not the other. It's understandable, really. Safety is something all living beings strive for, yeah? But, but, some things have to happen. The Universe is not static, it never was. I destroy because it's my weird passion, but also by destroying, I leave space for new things to happen. For new things to be built... If nothing was ever destroyed, no one would feel obliged to improve and adapt, and respect nature. And planets would get overcrowded! And the Universe would be sizzling with so many stars that refused to explode. You don't want that!

Of course she didn't want that, but Rosalina wondered if an eruption of a volcano or floods were that necessary to motivate people to invent. Though, she was aware that everytime someone wants to replace something old and worn down with something new, this initiative is always met with resistance. Whether it's a building or a concept. But people have the right to be sentimental about things.

Rosalina kept listening, intrigued by this hand's wisdom.  
Crazy continued:  
— As for my bro, ehh... Imagine that one day humans discover something that can grant almost any wish. A magical star, or whatever. If there were plenty of such objects, people would exploit them without thinking twice! What if they carry a curse of sorts? Who cares, just think about all these good things you can get! But when there is just one wish-granting object, people are gonna jump at each other's necks. Not even battle in fair terms. They would just lose their minds, dude. Like a bunch of hungry predators when you throw a snack at them. No, I actually didn't make this up. Zelda could tell you something about the Triforce or two.

The hand got serious. He stressed:  
— But, you know, my bro isn't an object. He is a sentient being with feelings. Whoever blinded by greed saw us, ignored that, because of how we look like. And there were many mortals like that, not letting us rest. So one day he just... snapped.

Rosalina opened her eyes. That last sentence was filled with dread.  
Crazy stopped moving as vividly as he usually does. His fingers twitched a bit but at that moment his enthusiasm was gone.  
The princess couldn't help but ask:  
— Did he hurt you?  
— What?! Of course not! —the hand answered, slightly irritated that she assumed that. — Sometimes we fight, but we never seriously injure one another. No! No way!  
— Then why did your voice break when you said he snapped. What did he do?  
— Oh, umm... To be honest, he always enjoyed morbid stuff. Don't ask me why, I don't know either. In the past, he used to be more reasonable and emphatic. One day though, he stopped caring anymore. He just took that one guy and crushed him. Turned him into a pulp. And he laughed about it... From his perspective, it's just not worth being merciful and benevolent. He enjoys being that kind of bastard. And those greedy fools keep trying to somehow seize his creating powers, not knowing how futile it is and how they keep fueling his hatred. And... and... —his voice got quiet and sorrowful. — And Tabuu only made things even worse... I'm sorry, Rosalina, but that's just who he is. That's just how people shaped him to be. They awoke the worst in him.

The princess started at him. Crazy knew what was she about to say so he added:  
— I know you find it unbelievable. It is true that not all beings turn into monsters after being abused so much. He is not one of them though. He was meant to be feared and respected just because of the power he holds. But he did not create mortal kind. Instead, people saw him as a tool. They saw him as a mindless beast that covetously hid miraculous powers from them. They wanted a beast. They got one.

Crazy got gloomy the more he reflected upon this subject. He summed up:  
— A fraction of evil always lingers in all of us. Some just deal with it better than anyone else, simply by being aware of this fact. Master though, wants to be evil, because he thinks that's the only way greedy freaks will finally leave him be...

Rosalina gasped and her eyes widened.  
"That is how this world works, where once you show mercy, hardly anyone thinks you are a threat anymore." is what Master said to her earlier before.  
That is what he meant.

Suddenly, other things Master told her started to make sense. They still conflicted greatly with her own worldview and she still didn't understand how all of this was allowed to occur, but now that Rosalina knew what happened, she understood what kind of logic hid behind Master's actions.

However, the sole idea that a bunch of heartless people have the power to make someone, even of divine origin, give up on being good terrified her.  
Crazy could see fear in Rosalina's eyes, so he assured her:  
— Don't worry. He is not completely awful. He won't hurt you. Bro can get nasty but equally often he can be really nice! The problem is, as I said, that Tabuu made things worse. Master was thinking for quite some time that he can't trust anybody but me. This is why he is unwilling to help you guys, but... but I'll convince him! Everything is going to be alright! I'll fix things up! I... usually destroy stuff, but now I gotta fix friendships!  
— That is... really kind of you, Crazy. —she said.

Crazy suddenly got up and exclaimed while pointing at something glowing in the distance:  
— Hey! Is that your Luma?!  
Rosalina noticed the light and without hesitation run up to it.  
Luma also noticed their mama, and flew towards her, 'pew'ing happily.

The two fell into each other's arms, embracing firmly one another.  
It was such a relieving moment that Rosalina let out a few tears. Luma stared at her worryingly but the princess didn't want them to feel bad.

While the two shared a moment, little flat mister walked up to the left hand. Crazy saw him and said:  
— Hey, little guy! You shouldn't have walked off alone like that! Oh, but what is that you are holding?  
2D fellow carried a 3D object which was almost as big as his head.  
— Can I take a look at it? —Crazy asked.  
Little mister gave him what appeared to be a music box on a string. A locket too large for an average person to wear.  
Just as Crazy was about to give it back, little mister just walked away, towards the campfire.

Fox and Brawler noticed the left hand, the flat mister and the princess with her star child coming towards them. They smiled.  
Little mister shyly sat down and just stared into the fire.  
The rest were staring at the strange music box Crazy kept holding and turning around.  
— Hmm, I wonder what it plays... —he said, and opened the music box.

The sounds the locket played were somber, to say the least. It was a short slow melody, awaking a sense of regret despite overcoming obstacles.[15]

Fox recognized it and said:  
— That melody... I've heard it before, but when? And why does it sound so distressingly?  
Crazy also couldn't quite recall when he heard it before.[16]  
More than a decade passed since the last time this locket was played, and yet, it was forgotten as if a century went by. It was a fleeting memory of times long time over.  
Crazy asked little mister where did he find it, but judging by it's beeps and movement of arms, he didn't find it in any specific place. Perhaps it just hanged on some lone tree or something.

While the hand and Fox were getting sentimental, Rosalina took the opportunity to urge:  
— Crazy, I just realized that we won't be able to get through this without your help. Yes, that one time we failed but none of us had any idea this could've happened. If not for that secret alarm, we would've succeeded. Please, stay with us.  
The hand got over the emotions the melody awoke in him and said:  
— Well, it's not like I was leaving you guys for no reason. This entire time I was trying to convince Master to help you out. But looks like he's gotta be pesky about this, huh? Ah well. Forget about him! We can do this!

After chatting for a little longer, everyone went to sleep. Tomorrow was a big day after all. They were so close to their destination.

Now with Luma by her side, Rosalina's mind was at ease. She could at last sleep in peace, without annoying thoughts. Only good memories of her Comet Observatory. Only nice memories of her Lumas.  
Only these... nothing else mattered right now.

The fighters and the left hand set off in the afternoon.  
After a few hours of travel, something was revealing itself from afar. Something huge floating in the sky.  
It didn't quite look like a ship, but it was one, sort of. A mechanical structure into which invaders were entering and leaving like wasps into their hive. This was the enemy's fortress.

They stopped several kilometers away from it. Crazy was certain that if they all got closer, invaders would react immediately. Distracting turned out to be a flawed solution.  
He had no other idea but to rely on stealth, which went against his rash nature but this was the only way.  
Crazy took little mister's unusual properties into consideration and asked:  
— Hey, buddy. Wanna help me out?  
Little mister beeped in excitement. He did want to help very much.

Crazy was aware that this flat individual could merge with walls and shadows, making him an excellent fighter for this mission. Crazy himself could possess one of Starmen to fit with the crowd, just like he used to possess a Mii-like doll. He explained this idea to the three (Luma wasn't quite aware of what was going on).  
The Brawler wondered:  
— What are we supposed to do then?  
— Do you still have that item chest? —the hand asked.  
— Yeah. Not touched since that fail of a mission...  
— Good, good, good. Okay, then. —Crazy proceeded to elaborate. — Sorry, you will have to stay. But it's important because once I'll reach the place where they are keeping Smashers, I'll create an interdimensional rift that leads them riiight here. —he poked the ground. — So you gotta stay here and don't move, okay? You'll provide them with items.  
The three fighters sighed, but they understood why they couldn't come.

Crazy Hand grabbed little mister so he wouldn't get lost and slowly moved towards enemy's base.  
Several hundred meters away from where the fortress was floating, force fields were set up so nothing unauthorized could fly towards the fortress.  
Behind the bushes, Crazy put little mister down (holding him felt really weird) and threw an energetic bomb to catch guarding Starmen's attention. There were six of them. Luckily, they split. Crazy shot energetic fetters at the one Starman who was the closest to him, possessing him.

Now as a Starman, Crazy had to act like he was one of them. He shot a beam at little mister to turn him into a trophy, to pretend it was this small guy that caused an explosion and he caught him red-handed. Crazy also knew that Starmen teleport constantly, so he had to do it too.  
Other Starmen noticed one of theirs with a trophy and they let him fly to the fortress with one of carriages he saw before.  
No one knew this, but trying not to twitch sporadically was one of more difficult things for Crazy to pay attention to.

Inside fortress, every alien and robot transporting something had a designated path to follow. Abandoning the path would start a silent alarm and send special troops after potential "rebel".[17]  
That wasn't good. Crazy expected the path to not stop in the vault, and he suspected the alarm could go off by just standing idly for too long.

The vaults were located quite deep and high. Crazy didn't worry about getting lost though. He always just broke through obstacles.  
Everything in the fortress worked like a clockwork. Only defective units of robots misbehaved, unintentionally. This perfect order made Crazy shudder. Only dictators could achieve this with their dependent servants. Or decent people with an army of mindless robots.  
Why would a dictator want to steal trophies anyway?  
Oh no.  
Was Master right in his assumptions? Were those aliens actually looking for... him?

Crazy would think about it later. Now he reached the vault. He had to be quick about this.  
He awoke flat fellow, pushed him into the area where trophies were stored, he shot out a bolt of energy at the wall to open the rift and he left.

He left to hunt down another greedy fool.

* * *

[12] _smol "Hypathia" reference. It's a song by 'The Bad Light'._

[13] _Oh boi, i have to explain "home galaxy" thing to justify "Nintendo games take place in one universe" headcanon. Because Super Mario Galaxy doesn't care about being accurate with celestial bodies (a game where 'galaxy' is apparently a bunch of planets and black holes and not enormous collection of stars), i don't care about being accurate with it's plot either, lol. Besides, in the past it was thought that Milky Way is one whole universe, so i just assume that same deal was with SMG, where actual galaxy was equated to entire universe. I just think "universe" is too big of an entity to be passed around so loosely.  
The only things that deny this headcanon is that different worlds have different physics going on for them, and Zelda's timeline is royally fucked. It's called "legend" for a reason._

[14] _He's talking about Streetpass Quest/Find Mii._

[15] _It's "All Clear" melody_ _from SSB64 played with 0.75 speed to be exact._

[16] _Crazy Hand wasn't involved in first Smash tournament (SSB64) so he remembers little to nothing about it, other than he was too shy to interact with fighters at that time._

[17] _Like in Wall-E._


	7. divine wrath

**7\. divine wrath**

Little mister hastily touched every gilded base of a trophy, one by one. Everytime a trophy was awakened, a loud sound and blinding light surrounded the trophy.

Everyone looked at each other and around, confused as to how did they get in here. Last thing they remembered were aliens attacking them.  
They noticed the rift and heard familiar voices coming out of it:  
— Get out of there, guys! Get out!

Most of fighters obliged and crossed the rift.  
There were some brave souls however, that wanted to stay. Why would they leave enemy's fortress anyway? It was best to attack them from outside and inside, or so they thought.

Kirby immediately ran off to sneak by through a ventilation system. Pikachu somehow squeezed out of here between metal bars. Bowser put his brutal strength to good use, by simply bending those bars. Sonic and Mega Man left through the opening Bowser formed.

What none of them noticed is that cameras were in the vault. Of course there were cameras in there, why wouldn't they be...

The moment they stepped out, the rift closed down and one of the screens that normally displayed a plan of current floor and statuses, changed to a video of a Starman who looked way different than the rest.  
He greeted the escapees both residing inside and outside:  
— You really thought we weren't prepared for that eventuality, huh.  
— Who are you? —Bowser snarkily spoke up. Because of the way speakers were set up in whatever room that alien was residing, fighters outside could hear the Koopa King.

The alien introduced himself as the leader of the invasion, known as "the Conqueror". Purple aura surrounded his dark armor. His visor differed from those his minions wore. He also wore a big collar of sorts. Simply put, he looked like a menacing hybrid of Ghost of Starman by the aura and armor and Final Starman by spikes.  
In the whole Universe, there were obviously plenty of conquerors roaming around, but not many had power and ambition to take over whole galaxies. He was one of minority.

The leader was in monitoring room. He looked at the image coming from outside and saw fighters arming themselves. He commented:  
— Wha... aaAAAHAHAHA hohoho What are you guys, some casuals?! I expected some competency over here, hahahahaha! But there's really no point in that, hahaha. With items or not, I'll crush you all anyway, ahahaha.

Crazy, still possessing a Starman, overheard this. He growled in anger. That guy was really getting on his nerves.  
Now that the whole fortress was on alert, the assigned paths were turned off and now Crazy could move around freely.

Just when the left hand stepped out of corridor into some sort of large area, he saw Sonic trying to be all heroic.  
Crazy facepalmed with his puppet's floppy arm. He hoped that for a change Smashers would do something reasonable.  
Sonic was doing fairly well, jumping at all those robots and making them attack each other by mistake. Even when his friends weren't nearby, he liked to show off and taunt enemies. He even sat down on one of Sentry Bots, and other robots didn't care that they were shooting at one of their kind.  
Crazy giggled by this display and asked:  
— What in fork and knife are you doin'?  
But blue hedgehog didn't hear him among the sounds of lasers.

Then, a very rotund robot came by, with kind of googly eyes and purple-ish armor. It's job was to mend and recharge other robots.  
It was pretty obvious for Crazy that if something is a battery on legs and it's damaged, it's going to explode. Especially when this robot was called "Nuclear Reactor Robot".  
Seeing Sonic aiming for this robot, Crazy screamed at the hedgehog:  
— By whole silverware, STOP!  
But he was too late. Sonic hit the robot.

The explosion itself wasn't that bad, but the shockwave was so powerful it pushed Sonic into ceiling and made Crazy eject from Starman's body, also making him crash into a wall. Other robots were also pushed away and the impact destroyed them.  
This wasn't enough to turn Sonic into trophy, but it was enough to break his leg.  
Sonic didn't seem to be aware of what happened to him and falling down, he tried to get up. Crazy Hand tried to fly up towards him to help him, but the hedgehog mumbled:  
— I'm fine. I'm fine...  
Crazy though wasn't planning on leaving him alone like that. He opened up a new interdimensional rift and just gently pushed him towards it, outside.

The hand just knew that Sonic wasn't the only one who stayed outside. He heard Bowser after all.  
He tried to find the Koopa King, but he had no idea where he could be. It shouldn't be difficult, considering that turtle is quite noisy. His main goal though, was to blow this place up. Crazy didn't want to bother with that Conqueror guy. Finding fortress' weak spot and saving stubborn Smashers was all the hand cared about.  
It didn't help that the corridors through which Crazy moved were suspiciously devoid of enemies. Were most of forces dispatched outside?

The hand entered another large area. This time it was some kind of station with train-like vehicles which were used to move through the fortress quickly.

"UNAUTHORIZED ENTITY IN AREA" alert was triggered.

Automatic turrets popped out from the floor and ceiling and fired at the hand a ton of lasers as thin and barely visible as needles.  
The pain Crazy felt was excruciating and immobilizing. His glove was torn and he bled in scarlet. The hand fell into a vile trap. A trap that was most likely not even meant for him.

Despite this ache, Crazy could not let aliens get him. He couldn't directly help his friends anymore either, but there was still something he could do.  
He crawled towards a wall and phased through an interdimensional rift that led him to where his brother was. To Final Destination.

When all of this mess was happening, Master Hand was, inappropriately to the situation, napping in outer space.  
The left hand got out of that place and curled in pain on the other edge of the platform.

This was the most horrible sight to wake up to. Master immediately got up, grabbed the left hand and created a roll of bandages. Anxious, he asked:  
— Crazy?! CRAZY! What the hell happened to you?!  
— It... it was... a trap... to lure you in... with... with them... —Crazy answered with a struggle.  
— Ugh, why else... —the right one remarked. — Using trophies as a bait for me? What a joke.

Master proceeded to treat Crazy's wounds. Of course, it was difficult to do it while being just one hand, so he magically lift the left hand up.  
Crazy didn't want to leave his friends to such great danger, so he urged his brother:  
— Save them... please...  
— Hmmm... —Master expressed his reluctance.  
— Can't you be... be nice for a change...?  
Master sighed. These 'toys' were his brother's friends after all. And maybe his own too? The grudge towards fighters was still present though.

But this grudge meant nothing comparing to the eternal bond between those hands. As much as they argued like most of siblings do, they understood each other perfectly, in spite of striking differences.  
Seeing his brother writhe in pain both terrified Master and angered him. Even in his twisted logic there was plenty of room for exceptions and especially for those highly important to him.

Master was done with bandaging Crazy and then he said dramatically:  
— These fools shall pay for your blood.  
— NO, you dumba-Argh! Gghh... —pain prevented Crazy from reaching forward. — S-s-save those people first... They are still stuck... in the fo-fortress...  
Right hand glanced at the left one. Did he have anything to lose? No. Absolutely nothing. He could avenge his brother AND get those 'toys' out of the fortress. But then, he would deliver himself to the one who sought him the most.  
— Ughh... Fine. Stay here. —he said.

Before going to the fortress, Master phased through a rift a great distance away from where Smashers were having a battle against aliens.  
What was meant to be a mindless monster made out of rage towards his oppressor and out of spite towards trophies, now was meant to help these 'toys' out. Only this one time and because the aliens had an overbearing advantage.  
The hand summoned the core which stored the swarm of Shadow Bugs and "programmed" it to only attack the invaders. He released it and then he crossed the rift to the fortress.

The hand found himself in the station where Crazy was assaulted. He noticed a hole in one of walls. Crazy must have saved himself from getting captured at the last second.  
Through the hole, the hand saw a few Starmen on patrol.

"UNAUTHORIZED ENTITY IN AREA" alert once again went out.  
The leader contacted his minions through their communicators:  
— This alert again?! How the hell do you guys keep failing at securing the fortress?  
— There's a hole in Sector 3! —one of Starmen reported.  
— Then patch it up, idiots!  
— Ah! AHH! HGHHH!  
The leader could hear a sound of explosions, laser guns and broken stuff through the communicator.  
— Who is attacking?! —he shouted.  
— A HAND!  
— But we already neutralized one! —the leader pointed out.  
— The previous one looked kind of different! —Starman hastily explained.  
— Wha...  
Conqueror was dumbfounded. He covered his face with his noodly arms.  
He realized there were not one, but two hands (of course, why would not there be two) and that his minions lacked the simple skill of telling apart right hand from a left one. Well, none of these beings had hands to begin with, so the leader shouldn't have been that surprised. They did however come across humans before. He hoped they would know by now.

The leader took a deep breath to regain composure and as calmly as possible he contacted another commanding Starman:  
— Ugh, please report the state of Laser Needle Trap.  
— Out of ammo, sir! We used all of it!  
— Perfect... just GREAT! —the leader dishonestly commented and smacked the panel out of anger.  
— Wh-what's the matter, sir?  
— We got the wrong hand!  
— Wrong one? Ahh!

The leader pressed one of buttons firmly to issue an order to everyone in the fortress:  
— All units inside move to Sectors 6 and 7! I repeat! All units move to Sectors 6 AND 7! Whatever enemies are in other sectors, forget about them.  
Emotions got the best of that alien, as he didn't took into consideration that the hand himself would overhear this order while grasping one of Starmen.

Master crushed the alien like an insect and began to think how to get around an incoming army of robots and aliens. Dealing with all of them would be a waste of time and energy, but it seemed like he had no choice.  
Best thing the hand could do was to get to the center before them, but how?  
Assume the spirit form and ghost through walls like some Wallmaster? No, walls were broken. He would be noticed through holes.  
The hand had never been here before, nor he had a plan of this fortress to navigate through, so all he could do was to follow signs and make his way through using force.

Indeed, the hand couldn't quite avoid incoming troops.  
He was about to teach them why the power of creation should be feared.

Massive azure aura surrounded him. Anything it came in contact with, started to grow out of control. Anything, even those foolish aliens and robots that tried to stop him.  
The moment the blue energy touched them, they grew new unwanted appendages, and if the energy got inside them, their organs swelled and tumors grew rapidly. They were getting so disfigured and mutated it was impossible for them to keep living with barely functional organs, making them die in the most painful way possible; making them end as incoherent pile of flesh or bulging scrap metal.[18]

In some places, the blue aura managed to form new walls from metals making up walls of the fortress. When Starmen tried to break through them by melting or cutting, the out-of-place wall tried to regrow, making this job more tedious than it should be.

Master heard a familiar growl. It was coming from an area where all ships were docked. Bowser lay on the ground, kind of tired but still wanting to fight.  
Of course. Crazy asked Master a favor. The hand could not come close to Koopa King though, otherwise the turtle would get disfigured by azure aura too.  
Master pulled out wires out of wall and sent electric signals to force the gates to open. Once they opened, the hand had to somehow lure Bowser into one of ships to get him out of here.

Ah, right. What else did Bowser want more than to take over a certain kingdom and smooch Princess Peach herself. But Peach was already outside. In that case, Master had to create a doll that looked like the princess. If he had time, he could probably make this doll look exactly like the real Peach, but he didn't. After completing the doll, Master moved "Petch" with his magic over Bowser's head and placed her in a ship docked the closest to Bowser.  
All Master could now hope for was for Bowser's naivety to work.

To catch Bowser's attention to the ship, Master threw a piece of junk at it. Bowser heard a metallic sound and noticed a princess-like silhouette in the open cockpit. He rushed towards the ship, as if he didn't notice Peach leaving the fortress back in the vault. Or maybe deep down in his heart he wished that Peach came to save him?  
Just as Bowser jumped into the ship, quickly realizing he got duped by a doll, the cockpit closed instantly and flew away on autopilot.  
Master couldn't believe how well that worked. He moved on.

Later on, the hand noticed a few buzzsaws stuck to the floor. He knew who could shoot those.  
In repair area, Mega Man was trying to fight back Sentry Bots, but just as fighters who had to deal with them in rocky place, the blue robot couldn't keep up with their dodging.  
It was pretty simple to deal with metallic beings. Master created a magnetic sphere and threw it at robots. Both Mega Man and bots got attached to it but that was good, because neither of them could attack each other now. Then, the hand just made the sphere roll without touching it and it crossed a rift leading outside.  
There, the sphere managed to attract more robots. It was an uncomfortable experience for Mega Man but Master didn't care.

While moving through one of wider corridors, the hand saw flashes of light coming out of the corner.  
It was Pikachu releasing his electric attacks but one of Nooks caught the Pokémon, unfazed by his electricity.  
Master created a Pokéball on a whim, threw it at Pikachu, and made the ball phase into a different place, outside.

Pikachu was obviously displeased by what just happened, but when he broke out of Pokéball, he was quite surprised to find out he was somewhere completely different than previously.  
The Pokémon got even more caught unawares when an alien on a spider-like mech approached him and aimed at him, saying:  
— Hee hee... Eaaasy taarget...  
The electric mouse got intimidated by them.

Suddenly, behind the Spiderbot Nook, a swarm of black particles burst out of the ground.  
Pikachu yelped and run away. He knew what it was. Nook, however, didn't and tried to fight it. They shot at the swarm, but it was pretty hard to hit something not solid and constantly flying around and changing shape. The swarm then charged at the Nook and covered them, getting though it's mouth and killing them from the inside.  
Just as it's "programming" commanded, the swarm proceeded to charge at other aliens, mostly those in the air, flying in their small combat ships.  
The fighters were astonished to realize that this monstrosity was "fighting" on their side, for reasons for them unknown.

Back in the fortress, Master continued his rampage and search for stray 'toys'. He couldn't keep the aura up for much longer, so it dissolved. He had to save up energy for what's to come.

The hand reached a long area with emergency pods. None of them were used so far. The hand assumed that it's because the leader of invaders would take usage of them as an act of desertion. The fact that there weren't that many of these pods also hinted at leader's tyranny, who seemed to not care much about his minions' lives.

In the same area, a pink puffball walked carefully, wondering where he was and what were all those things around him.  
Suddenly, Kirby felt a powerful push and before he could resist it, he hit the wall of the open emergency pod. Just as he was about to fight back, the door closed right before him.  
He punched the door in protest, still wanting to be in fortress but he caught a glimpse of a familiar hand and stopped, confused. Why this grumpy hand suddenly appeared and wanted to rescue him? Did it mean that this place was very dangerous?  
Kirby softly said "no" as he was launched out of the fortress. There was nothing he could do.

At last, Master reached that "Sector 6" those aliens were ordered to defend so badly.  
It was pretty obvious why "Sector 7" with the leader's room was close enough to the area with emergency pods.  
Just as the Conqueror ordered, this is where most of forces inside concentrated at the moment and they were armed to the teeth. Well, among all these aliens, only Nooks had teeth.  
The moment the aliens saw the big white hand, they began to fire a barrage of lasers and rockets.  
Master simply stretched his fingers, and focused.

Something odd was happening. All those lasers and rockets were stopping right before the hand. They just stopped, as if time froze between them and the hand.  
One of commanding Starmen ordered to cease fire, hoping they did more than enough.  
As the smoke cleared up, the enemies got bewildered by the sight of hundreds of lasers and a ton of rockets suspended in air.  
Master twitched all of his fingers for a bit, and in the blink of an eye, the projectiles reversed their trajectory and flew back at those who fired them.[19]

The explosion was so immense, it broke the door the aliens guarded, to the Sector 7 and monitoring room.  
The leader got startled by that loud noise. He looked frightened at all the smoke pouring in.

Master hovered right before the entrance, motionlessly. His fingers were tensed up. Only his thumb twitched sporadically. Bolts of energy were flowing between his fingers. He was simply put, furious.

The dark Starman put himself together and decided to not allow the hand to scare him. After all, whole civilizations have fallen before him. What is one hand for him? Two would be way worse, but one?  
Neither the alien, nor the hand bothered to speak up at that moment. There was no point in talking. They knew what the other one wanted. One wanted power, the other one craved revenge. They were too fixated on their determination to attack right away. They stood in silence, waiting for their enemy's move.

If Conqueror was some foolish daredevil who didn't know who he was dealing with, Master would tear him into pieces right where he stood. But he didn't. The invader was prepared. He set up a shield beforehand and his purple aura protected him against that terrifying azure one.  
The hand knew how to deal with this, after that one mistake...

Master clenched his fist and charged at the alien. Conqueror waited, thinking the hand is going to fail and hurt himself. But just as Master was about to hit the shield, just like that, he disappeared.

That caught Conqueror off guard. Just as quickly, Master reappeared, but right behind the alien, and landed the punch.  
The hit was pretty powerful, sending the alien far outside the monitoring room. He hit the floor and glided across it for a while. Once he stopped on some other Starman's corpse, he slowly got up, cursing how useless his shield turned out to be. But the battle had just begun, and the Conqueror had plenty of tricks ready to be used.

Master didn't wait for him to recover and charged at him, wanting to grab him, but the alien quickly turned around and cast PK Fire right towards his palm to distract him. Then, Conqueror fired a series of beams to immobilize the hand, used telekinesis to throw heavy debris at him and at last the alien presented his surprise: PK Starstorm, wanting to be done with his opponent quickly.[20]  
A series of large energetic yellow orbs shot rapidly towards the hand. Even if he wasn't hurt so much prior this, the hand still would be unable to avoid it unless he disappeared from the line of fire. He could only endure this.

The hand was sent flying and he hit few screens in the monitoring room.  
Master was hurt quite badly, even his glove tore up and he started bleeding in azure here and there, but he still felt fine. He got up as if nothing happened, and proceeded to present his magic. The kind of magic he never dared to use against trophies.  
His blood vessels and some parts of his glove lit up in azure color. Playtime was officially over.[21]  
Master raised off the ground, turned around to face upwards with his palm, and then he performed a gesture as if he tried to squeeze something invisible.  
The dark Starman had no idea what that motion was supposed to mean, but soon enough he found out.

Energetic white orbs surrounded by blue energy started to crash into fortress right from the sky. The fortress began to shake and sway. Debris from all over the place moved back and forth, some of which hit the alien. This downpour of energetic orbs wasn't enough to destroy the entire fortress, but eventually they broke through and hit the whole floor the hand and the alien were on. All this swaying prevented the Conqueror from attacking the hand, despite his best efforts.  
It looked like as if Master summoned an actual storm of stars.[22]

Outside of the fortress, those fighters who were not preoccupied with fighting witnessed this spectacle from a distance. They had no idea what kind of phenomenon that was.

Back inside, while this 'storm of stars' was still taking place, Master suddenly dashed towards Conqueror and now he finally grabbed the alien, threw him into approaching orbs, and for some time he kept punching and launching him at hazards again.  
The alien at last stopped letting the hand use him as a volleyball, by jumping off his fist and casting PK Flash. However, last orbs from 'storm of stars' managed to hit him in the head.

Now both the alien and the hand were stunned. Purple liquid similar in color to Conqueror's aura was seeping from his visor and some parts of his armor. Master shook himself to recover, unknowingly splattering his blood around.  
It appeared as if both of their bodies were just oozing with indescribable substances, and with each hit, they leaked more and more of their weird matter, and so their attacks were becoming more and more uncontrollable. This couldn't last forever of course.

Despite the headache, Conqueror shot a series of beams blindly, hoping one of them will hit the hand. A few did hit, but that didn't prevent Master from performing his next set of tricks.  
The hand approached the alien like he was a paw of some wild predator, supporting himself with his fingers once in a while. He was so enraged.

Master slammed the floor, sending a shockwave which lifted the alien upwards. Then, the hand made his enemy spin while being suspended in air, to confuse him, and threw a series of energetic discs at him.  
After doing that, he came up with something better. Once again, the hand made a motion like he tried to crush something, causing air pressure to drastically increase where the dark Starman was. It felt as if the Conqueror was about to be smashed in a press. Despite being spun, the Conqueror focused his aura to resist the pressure.  
Seeing this not really working as intended, the hand stopped. It still drained the enemy's strength drastically.

Now Master was pretty close to finishing Conqueror off.  
The alien was barely standing after this but he still could fight. In fact, he decided it was high time he released another surprise. A very nasty one. A very familiar looking one.  
The Conqueror curled in air, focusing all energy he had. Master braced himself for whatever was about to happen.  
But nothing would have prepared him for this.

The Conqueror shouted:  
— BEGONE!  
Immense light flashed.  
The hand felt an insane force pushing him away from his target. Even when he was stopped by a wall behind him, the bizarre force kept pressing him harder into this wall. On top of that, the light was burning the hand's already damaged skin.[23] It felt as if tons and tons of white hot metal was being poured onto him while being pressed by something really heavy.  
This hurt like hell.  
Master screamed like never before. Not even that blue subspacial alien inflicted that much pain on him.

The light was so intense, it lit up upper part of the fortress and shone like a lantern against nocturnal darkness. Whoever was fighting outside, stopped. Smashers, invaders, they all stopped. They didn't hear anything though.

After a while, it stopped.  
Conqueror dropped to the ground, exhausted. He could see the effects of what he just did. This attack bent walls, floor and heated them up.  
The hand also dropped to the ground, bleeding excessively, his glove and skin torn all up, especially on front side. He didn't move, he didn't even twitch. He didn't even make a sound.

The alien felt relief. He thought it was over. He thought he won.  
He slowly got up, still staring at the hand, but doubting he would get up.

Finally, the victory was within Conqueror's reach. He went back to the monitoring room. It was nearly completely damaged but one of monitors still worked. It was displaying what was happening outside. Most of his troops fell but his enemies also barely held on.  
All he had to do now was to eradicate the nuisance those trophies were. This world, all his...  
Basking in glory, enjoying the moment, caressing reality's strings to weave new order from it...

...and being absolutely blinded and deafen by pride.

"MAIN POWER SOURCE CONDITION: CRITICAL. AUTO-DESTRUCTION IMMINENT" alarm went off.  
— WHAT?!  
He turned around and glanced in disbelief at a blue smear on the already messy floor, leading to the power control panel.

The very same being he thought he finished off once and for good, in spite of all these wounds and only wearing what used to be a glove, crawled all the way there behind alien's back.  
Master was pressing the panel with his bloody fingers, sending energy bolts through wires, causing the power supply to melt.  
And to mock the alien even further, he weakly but insolently cackled.

The Conqueror glared in shock, and then exploded with raw rage.  
— thAT HELL-BENT HAN-  
As he was about to rush to the panel, the door shut right before him, smashing his floppy arm.

The victory he could almost smell... brashly snatched away like that.  
The dark Starman shrieked in pain while behind the door muffled chuckle and loud alarm sound were continuously taunting him; pulling him down the oblivion of shame. This was as embarrassing and painful as falling of a mountain, when one was just about to reach that peak.  
His last words were filled with sorrow:  
— i was... S e...

The fortress blew up. Gigantic smoke, rain of burning parts and an unbearable shockwave destroyed the remaining forces outside.  
The invaders were no more.

The fighters stared for quite some time at that enormous cloud of smoke and tons of falling burning pieces. Even the Swarm stood still.  
Most of them had no clue what happened. Did Sonic miraculously saved the world again? No, he was sitting on the back, his leg was broken. Those who didn't notice Kirby in the emergency pod earlier thought that perhaps he flew through the fortress with Dragoon, but obviously he didn't. Kirby stared anxiously into the sky, knowing who was left there.

Pink puffball's expression suddenly changed, as he noticed something blue falling from the smoke. He gasped, jumped off the pad and run off into the distance while shouting "poyo!" worryingly.  
Of course, everybody noticed this but didn't understand why Kirby reacted like that. Neither Rosalina, but she got instantly worried that Kirby is putting himself in danger by running into where falling pieces of fortress were falling.  
— Kirby, wait! —the princess shouted, flying fast to catch the puffball.  
Kirby didn't want to be caught at all, but there was no way he could escape from someone who had to catch mischievous Lumas every day.  
— Kirby, please! You'll hurt yourself! —Rosalina pleaded, while holding him firmly.  
But puffball wasn't ready to give up just yet. He tried to escape and he shouted in protest too.

The two were struggling until they heard a giggle from afar. A weak but distinctive cackle.  
They stopped. Rosalina still held Kirby, and they watched how a familiar silhouette tried to get up while still giggling and blue liquid dripping from him.

Just as Rosalina decided to fly closer to help him somehow, the sun rose from the horizon.  
He disappeared with first beams of daylight, and his signature laugh echoed for a while. Seconds later, a purple star shoot across the sky. The princess knew it was that platform, carrying him home, wherever that might have been.

Having nothing else left to do here, Rosalina and Kirby returned to their friends.

* * *

[18] _Applied one of my headcanons. Can be found on create-n-destroy tumblr._

[19] _As a sidenote, here it's hard to tell when Master Hand is using actual magic (a.k.a. still allowable by physics manipulation of energies/elements) or when he is screwing with laws of physics in his favor. In this case, it's definitely the latter. somethingsomething vector reversal something. This whole "interdimensional rifts" thing is a bit of both._

[20] _PK Starstorm out of all things, because the move is impossible to dodge and the Conqueror is a hybrid of Starmen who are able to use it._

[21] _I still remember Overdrive headcanon ;) as old and not properly done it is._

[22] _The orbs are made of creative energy, not destructive one. It means that on their own these orbs aren't that damaging. If Crazy Hand summoned 'storm of stars', not only would the whole fortress be gone, but also there would be a really deep hole underneath. He actually planned on doing that after rescuing Smashers but he got defeated before he had a chance._

[23] _"You cannot grasp the true form of Giy- Conqueror's attack!"_


	8. epilogue-wishing to grasp chaos

**8\. epilogue-wishing to grasp chaos**

Several days have passed since those events. No one was in mood for a friendly free-for-all, recovering from their injuries, but Rosalina was still confused. There were so many questions left unanswered.

Days turned into weeks. Slowly everything was returning back to normal. Preparations and trainings resumed. Fighters talked about various things, but not about what happened. As if they wanted to forget.

One sleepless night, Rosalina went outside to gaze at the stars. She too wanted to forget; shrug off all of this mess in her head, but she couldn't. The fate of the universe was under control of a chaotic entity she kept failing to comprehend and others kept disregarding. Could chaos even be comprehended?  
She pulled off that music box Crazy left in that vehicle and played it's melancholic melody.  
— I don't understand... —she whispered sorrowfully.

Out of the blue, Rosalina felt a pat on her head. She looked up and what else could possibly be stroking her head but giant bandaged fingers.

Probably for the first time ever, the princess heard Master speak in tired tone, as he said:  
— Life would be utterly boring if you did understand.  
Rosalina turned around to face him. The right hand was covered entirely in bandages.  
She quickly recalled the music box.  
— I believe this is yours. —she took it off and gave it to him, while it still played the melody.  
— Oh, it is. Thank you. —the hand took it and listened to it.  
The princess glanced at him again. He shouldn't be here in such state. But he acted as if he was alright, other than the tired voice.

Rosalina felt she had to ask the hand something, while he was here.  
— Someone told me they heard this melody before.  
Master closed the locket and explained:  
— Yes, I used to play it quite often during the first tournament. I find this melody relaxing. Hmm? They didn't tell you about the first Smash? Heh, no wonder, I was quite arrogant during that time. Don't expect them to tell you everything about our relationship. We never liked each other, hehe.  
— Wh-what? What do you mean 'never'? —Rosalina asked. — Kirby risked his life to run up to you after you fell.  
— Please, Kirby is just a child. He doesn't care about me, he was just curious. Back then, he was all confused in Subspace, and one time when I explored Mirror World, we ran into each other and fought a bit. Heh, quaint place.  
— But...  
— They don't care about me, that's all there is to it. Do you hear them asking how am I doing? No. Not everyone has to be friends with others. Especially with a floating hand. Give them a break.  
— B-but...  
— That's how it has always been. People hardly ever get along with members of not only other species, but with each other too if the differences between them are huge. Really, how can anyone understand such a weirdo like me if they can't understand each other in the first place? Ahahaha. Ahahahahaha!  
In a blink of an eye, Master disappeared. His laugh still haunted her.

Was he challenging her? Was he mocking her? Did he doubt in her efforts? Did he just indirectly tell her to give up and move on with life like anyone else? Was he not trusting her too?  
What did it mean? What did he mean?  
Only questions filled the princess' head, and there were no answers to satisfy her.

Rosalina clenched her fist. Giving up was not an option for her. Not now, when she finally got on right track.


End file.
